The Lion's Serpent
by Zoe Elizabeth
Summary: [AN: Currently being revised] Snape goes down hard on Hermione, and she takes it out on Malfoy. SSHG Pairing. The Silvern Invitation II Now Up! Two Chapters For Part II of The Silvern Invitation...
1. An Anonymous Note

Currently Being Revised

A/N: This fic is being revised and edited at the moment.  You might find some chapters missing, so I suggest that you not read The Lion's Serpent until I am done polishing it up.  (I am currently revising each chapter for better reading.)  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thank you, for your patience.

Zoe Elizabeth

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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Rating: R

Length: ??

A/N: Currently being revised. (Read at your own risk)

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"The Lion's Serpent"

Chapter One 

'An Anonymous Note'

It was a sweltering hot Saturday at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  The faint breeze halted at the large oak doors, while the thick towering halls insulating the large castle only added to the day's continuous scorching.  Every student was found outside, either by the lake (or in), sunbathing in the blazing sun, shading under one of the many trees (ancient and queer), tossing enchanted water balloons at each other, running barefoot and burnt against the velvety lawn, or cruising topless with their posses on their flying broomsticks.  

All were outside enjoying--or cursing--the sweltering sun except for a few.  Three, to be exact...

Behind the Invisibility section of the Hogwarts Library, hid a scrawny seventh year with lean sinewy arms, and his rugged, broad-shouldered redhead friend.  Careful as to avoid being seen by Madam Pince who had forbid the two Gryffindors from entering the Library on the weekends for the next three weeks because of their foolish attempt to sneak 'Quaffled Queens' out of the library the day before, Harry and Ron tried hard to get a certain someone's attention.

"Psst, Hermione… Hermione… hey, Hermione!  I don't think she can hear me," Ron whispered to Harry. 

"Well, throw something at her; just get her attention," Harry snapped.   

"Harry, she's studying, she wouldn't look up if your life depended on it.  Well… unless, of course, you had a book for a head," Ron grinned.  Harry nudged his friend in the ribs for his insipid joke and resumed attempting to get Hermione's attention.

Hermione had been in the library for eight straight hours studying, reading, and memorizing every book she came across.  It was boiling hot inside and she was in the library playing Madam Pince's shadow.  Well, actually, Hermione had 'accidentally' answered one of Snape's questions wrong the previous day in class, and he had come down on her hard.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," he said in his slipperiest tone yet.  "It looks like Hogwarts' greatest mind can't tell the difference between a Pogsbire and a Bongsgit."

Hermione, of course knew the answer; it was the Cunsbot.  A Pogsbire was a premature Bongsgit, and when it matured it lost its Cunsbot, the rubbery pouch behind its ears that produced Bots pus, which they spit out when they felt threatened.  It was essential to brewing many antidotes for food poisoning, but before he asked, she was oddly thinking about her relationship with Ron and how it ended, and when she opened her mouth to answer, the words 'Ron's butt' came out instead.  Snape had a field day, and made sure she left his class wishing she wouldn't show up the following week.  So she took refuge in the library that night and early Saturday morning, squeezing nonsense material into her already jam-packed brain.

 Meanwhile, Harry and Ron had found an anonymous note in Ron's Transfiguration text, telling them Malfoy and his overgrown cronies had found a way into the Gryffindor Tower and were planning on sneaking in there at exactly midnight in order to let out enough Filibuster Fireworks and Dungbombs to wake up the whole House and suffocate them in their sleep.  They had approximately eight hours to come up with a brilliant plan that would make Malfoy wish he never stepped foot in Gryffindor Tower.  All they needed, of course, was a brilliant mind--but she was busy making love to 'Hogwarts, A History' for the umpteenth time.

"If she paid that much attention to me when we were going out, I would've died of bliss," Ron said annoyingly to the eager Harry next to him.

 "Oh, not this shit again," Harry hissed.  "Ron, for the hundredth time, it's over, get over it.  Now we need to convince her that we won't do anything rash, and that we're only trying to do what's right."  Ron had a huge grin spread over his face.

"Sure."

"Well, it is against the rules to enter into houses that you don't belong to, right?  So tell her Malfoy's up to no good, and that we need her to come up with a plan that'll ensure he got what he deserved for trespassing."

 "Something ingenious," Ron interrupted, already picturing a hexed Malfoy dangling from Gryffindor Tower with his body parts all in the wrong places.

"She'll understand, right?  I mean you and I both know that Snape wouldn't punish him for shit.  He'd probably even kiss Malfoy for being so bloody brilliant."

"Of course she'll understand, Harry," Ron assured his friend with a pat on the back.  "I mean, we're talking about Hermione here."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?  There is absolutely no way I'm doing such a thing, and if the two of you go up there tonight you'll both get expelled, because after this I'm going straight to Professor McGonagall," Hermione fumed.  "I can't believe you two!  It's our final year and you still haven't grown up.  If you think that I'm going to let you abuse my title as Head Girl for the purpose of your entertainment, then you're in for a surprise, because if I catch either of you with so much as a toe out of bounds, I will knock so much points off this house you'll be catching snitches up your arse to get them back."

The wide-eyed pair was so shocked at their friend's reaction that they backed up into a wall and cowered at the fuming Hermione.

"Look at me!  I mean it, look at me, boys."  Both of them looked at every feature on her face except her glaring eyes.  "I am so angry with the two of you right now…" Hermione stepped closer to the cowering pair before they flinched and in a moment of impulse, Ron, cowardly grabbed Harry's arm.  Harry nudged his friend and stared chillingly at an enraged Hermione. "The two of you have yet to feel my rage, and I am this close, this close…" she said with her hand close to her face and her index finger centimeters away from her thumb, "…to throwing the two of you out."  Ron gawped at Hermione and her expected/unexpected reaction.

"Close your mouth, Ron; I can see your tonsils from here," she spat.  Ron quickly shut his mouth and dared not to answer back.  They felt guilty because she was right; in a way, they were hoping that whatever they—well, Hermione--was going to come up with, they would get away with it because she was the Head Girl and their best friend.  Obviously, they were wrong because they winced at the very sight of her fuming over them in her private quarters issued to her alone as Head Girl.

In a moment of idiocy, Ron raised his hand to protest. "But… Malfoy… he's… tonight… Dungbusters… Filibombs… you just can't…"

Harry clapped his hand around Ron's mouth and forced a smile on his nervous face.  "Finish that sentence, Weasley, and I'll post you head first on the bulletin board," she snarled. 

Hermione stepped back and sat down in her Transfigured plush swivel chair.  She buried her red face in her hands.  She wasn't really angry that the boys had come to her with their plan.  She had actually thought it was a great one, but she had been so furious at Snape and his remarks from the previous day that she lashed out at anyone who came to talk to her about anything that was short of an emergency or tutoring.

She was especially angry with Malfoy and that smug look he had on his face when Snape came down on her.  She knew he was just itching to say something to her so she picked up her things and left seconds after the bell rang, but she knew it was just a stall; he'd catch her sooner or later, which he did unfortunately at dinner in the Great Hall. 

_"So tell me Granger," he said scathingly, "does Weasley's ass really spit pus when it sees you, or does it have a rubbery pouch to have reminded you of a pogsbire?"_

Malfoy's flanking goons guffawed out loud nudging each other in the sides as if Draco's criticism was the funniest they had heard yet.  Neville, who had grown balls over the past year, stood up quickly from his seat while an off-guard Crabbe and Goyle were still nudging each other like idiots.

"Hey Crabbe, was that really f-funny or did M-Malfoy pay you to laugh?" The whole Gryffindor table broke out in laughter.  The smug look on Malfoy's face turned into a narrowed glare, and Crabbe, flushed with anger, would have pummeled Longbottom if they had not been so outnumbered and so far from their table.  Neville received lots of pats on his shoulders and victory nudges for his bravery from all over the table.  "Whoa!  Good one, Neville," said Seamus Finnigan.  "Do another one."

"Yes, Longbottom… please do,"said a dreadful voice from behind them that shut the table up instantaneously.  Snape was standing behind them arms folded, back ridiculously straight, and eyes blacker than ever.  The whole table had sat down while Neville still stood flabbergasted, shaking before an intimidating Snape.

"Well, it's a pity you don't put as much effort into my Potions class as you do rehearsing your comebacks, Longbottom."  Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were beside themselves.  "Return to your seats," Snape said to his Slytherin students before turning back to the Gryffindor table.  "The next time you feel like expressing your Gryffindor side, send out a memo so the other houses could prepare themselves from your - multifaceted comebacks."  Neville's head seemed to have shrunk a foot or two.  Ron and Harry glared violently at their Potions Master, but they weren't alone.  Hermione's anger was now colossal.

This was actually a perfect time for her to get back at Malfoy for being such a jerk, and thinking that she would take care of him herself, she would just have to make sure Ron and Harry stayed away from the top of the tower that night.  She looked up at her two friends, who were obviously waiting for her to snap at them for still being there.

"Look, Harry, Ron," she said softly, "I need you to promise me that you won't go up there tonight.  It'll be after hours, and if McGonagall catches you there, you'll both be in big trouble.  Now what I'm going to do is tell Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape what Malfoy is planning, and have her wait there for him.  If he shows up, she'll take care of him, and if he doesn't… well, they'll just have me to deal with.  I don't want the two of you there when all this is going on, Snape will find out if you were there, so you can bet he'll be certain the two of you had something to do with it and probably get you sacked as well.  Harry, please, just wait until morning to find out what happens to Malfoy.  Snape will be expecting you to be there, so just stay away."

Harry and Ron exchanged defeated glances and nodded silently before turning to go.  "I'm serious, Harry; stay away from there.  I'll let McGonagall know that the two of you informed me of Malfoy's plan and to look out for you in case you come up, and warn anyone else who knows because they also will be in trouble."  Ron opened his mouth to protest, when Harry nudged him in the ribs and grabbed his arm, pulling him out the room.

"What are you doing?  Can you believe her?  The nerve." 

"Damn it, Ron, sometimes you can be so dense!  Did you forget about my cloak?"  Ron, at first, looked around, almost certain that Hermione had heard him, then turned to his friend and smiled for the first time since they had told Hermione about Malfoy.

Hermione was relieved when they left; she, of course, was trying to get rid of them so she could formulate a plan to get back at Malfoy without leaving any tracks.  She knew she could do anything to Malfoy and he couldn't tell anyone, because that would mean admitting that he was in the Gryffindor Tower.  So she let Harry and Ron think that she was going to go to Professors McGonagall and Snape so she could sneak up there and take care of the spoiled little bastard herself.  What Hermione failed to ask Harry and Ron was where and from whom they attained this information.

Quarter past eleven, and Hermione had come up with a plan for Malfoy.  Nothing that would hurt him, of course--just something that would burn him with embarrassment as he had always done to her.  She would sneak up to the tower at quarter to twelve and wait for Malfoy.  When or if he showed up, she'd shove him into the Gryffindor prefects' bathroom at the top of the tower and ward the door against any intrusion.

She'd then stun him, bind him, strip him and transfigure his clothes into Pansy Parkinson's last Yule ball gown and his shoes into 5-inch stilettos, and the metal hanger she hid under her robes into a tiara.  She'd cast a quick dressing spell and the _Morbilicorpus _on him.  Then she would take him downstairs to the common room and hang him above the hearth for all the Gryffindor students to find in the morning.  She knew she was being a bit ruthless, but she had already made her mind up.

'Don't plan something if you can't carry it out,' she thought.        

At half past eleven, Hermione quickly changed her mind and decided to go up early in case Malfoy decided to get there before midnight.  On her way up, she started to panic, wondering if she should turn back.  'You're the Head Girl, for gods' sake,' she thought nervously.  "No," she said to herself.  "He's going to pay.  Besides, it's too late to turn back now, Hermione.  Who'd find out?"

When Hermione arrived near the bathroom where she was to execute her plan, she slid inside, closed the door, and stood with her ear pressed against it so she could hear anyone coming or going in the hallway.  She heard nothing for a good half an hour, and was about to give up and return to her room when she faintly heard the sound of movement outside the door.  Hermione shook her head and pressed her ear closer to the door in case she was just hearing things from being too tired.  She definitely heard the sound of something moving outside, but there weren't any voices heard whispering, which she found very odd.  It was definitely Malfoy, she thought.  She braced herself for what she was about to do, and waited for another minute for Malfoy to at least accomplish his misdemeanor before sacking nailing the bastard.

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	2. A Plan Unveiled

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Chapter Two 

'A Plan Unveiled'

Harry and Ron were up in their room, eagerly awaiting midnight. After leaving Hermione earlier, they had been debating if she had meant it when she said she was going to McGonagall.

"I don't know, Harry, she seemed really pissed, and you know we've done a lot more crazier stuff that she's even agreed to do without even being asked.  I think she's still fuming about Potions class and that bastard Malfoy.  Oh, just put us in a room together and I'll knock his molars to the front of his mouth.  That'll fix that smug look up…"

"Ron," Harry interrupted, "do you really think she was just trying to lead us off?  I mean, you don't think she'd go after Malfoy alone, do you?"

"I don't know, Harry," he whispered when Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom came in.  "I doubt it."

At quarter to midnight, when Seamus and Neville were sound asleep, Harry grabbed his cloak from his trunk and whispered to Ron, "It's time."  They both got under the cloak and headed out the door.  When they got down to the common room, Harry stopped Ron and urged him to go to the back of the room.  

"What?" Ron asked.

"I don't think we should do this," Harry said worryingly, thinking about all the times he had broken the rules.  It had all been for good reasons, and this was not a good reason—well, at least the way his Professors would see it.  As much as he wanted to see Malfoy get caught, he was feeling quite certain that it wasn't going to turn out pretty if they were to show up there.

"Ron, we promised Hermione.  Besides, I'd actually like to wake up tomorrow so I can enjoy whatever's left of Malfoy."

"Oh, Harry, don't tell me you're backing out now!  I know we promised Hermione, but I'm sure she won't find out we were there if we take the cloak."

"No, Ron.  We have to sit this one out; I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Aah, bloody hell.  Why'd you have to ruin such a perfect opportunity to see the look on that idiot's face…"

"Ron." 

"Oh, all right; let's go back upstairs."

It was now midnight, and they were walking glumly back up the stairs to their room when Harry halted suddenly halfway up the stairs, nearly sending Ron flying down if it weren't for the rails that he grabbed.  

"What in the name of Godric's nuts…"  

"Shit, Ron."  Ron looked up to see the horror on his friend's face and gulped before asking, "What is it, Harry?"

"Damn it, Ron; the note!" he said as he tore up the stairs to get to their room.  

When they got there, Harry rummaged through Ron's school bag like a madman.  "Harry, what the hell are you doing?  You're making me really nervous."

"Don't you get it, Ron?  The note, the note, Ron."  Finally finding it between two pages of the Transfiguration text, Harry held it aloft for Ron to see.  "Ron, don't you find it weird that we, you and I, Hogwarts' most eager pair of students, and Malfoy's worst enemies, happened to find a note tipping us off about his so-called plan inside your Transfiguration text, when you hadn't taken it out all day for the past three days because you didn't need to, and yet someone managed to slip it in there, anyway?  A note tipping us off about Malfoy's plan would definitely get us up there faster than we can say 'ferret face'.  Now who do you know that wants us--or let's say, me--upstairs in a dark tower in the middle of the night, Ron?"  The look of horror on Ron's face could not compare to the horror he was feeling.

Ron's heartbeat, increasing by the second and pounding furiously against his chest was drumming in his ears.  "Harry, as creepy as that sounds," he gulped, "you're missing the point here.  The note wasn't in your Transfiguration text.  It was in mine."

"All the more brilliant, you see," Harry exclaimed.  "If I found the note in my textbook, I certainly would have been suspicious, but because we found it in yours, we didn't even bother to think twice, and whoever put it in there had to be bloody confident you were going to tell me."  Ron's face had turned a ghastly white.

"Oh shit, Harry, you don't think..." 

"Voldemort," Harry whispered.  Ron winced and looked up to see Harry's face turn slightly pale.  "Ron –" 

" - Hermione."

Hermione carefully and quietly turned the doorknob, opening the door slightly.  The passageway was dark and completely silent.  Her heart was racing and her palms, sweaty. She flung the door open and stepped out with her wand aloft.  To her surprise, she was alone.

'What the hell?' she thought to herself.  She thought it wise to keep quiet, her hood still over her head concealing most of her face.  She looked around, but no one was to be found.  There was the faint sound of footsteps, and she quickly turned around to see something moving.  However, but it wasn't moving towards her--it was moving away from her.  She followed the figure quietly about a good 15 paces behind.  'What the hell is Malfoy playing at?' she thought.  'And where the hell is he going?'  He was walking up toward the top of the tower.  She followed him for 15 minutes, and when she saw the hooded Malfoy stop at an old broom closet and walk inside, she thought she had him cornered.

'He's probably hiding the fireworks in there,' she thought.  So she steadied herself, and holding her wand out, she flung the closet door open with a simple swish.  To her surprise again, there was no one.  Nothing.  Not a damn thing, except for a broom.  An old beat-up broom swathed in cobwebs and dust.  Hermione would have thought that no one had entered the empty closet in probably decades from the looks of the broom, except for the fact that the broom closet was nowhere as filthy as the broom.  The room actually looked as if it was cleaned just a week ago, despite a few specks of dust here and there.  Hermione was feeling very nervous now.

'Where the hell is Malfoy?'  Hermione turned to dash out and run downstairs to get as far away as possible from the tower, when she noticed that the broom was propped on something.  It looked as if it were leaning against the wall, but when she looked closer; the broom wasn't leaning on it at all.  It was propped on some sort of lump on the wall.  "Lumos."  Hermione risked a bit of light to take a closer look at the broom and the wall, and she noticed that the lump was actually a knob.  There was a small door, no higher than her waist, concealed behind the broom.

Hermione cleared away some of the cobwebs between the broom and the door, and moved to grab the knob. Her finger slid over the broom handle.  She felt as if something heavy had hooked her behind the navel and pulled her up.  She felt dizzy, and was suddenly in a spinning wisp of smoke and colors, making her feel nauseated, until she landed with a loud thud.  Hermione shook her head.  Taking a second to collect her thoughts and register what had just happened, she realized that she was hunched over, her hands and feet touching the floor, and her knees bent and wobbly.  She always felt queasy when she traveled by Portkey, and was never too good on the landing.  Her eyes were still closed, but her thoughts began to come back quickly, with a vengeance.  Slowly opening her eyes, Hermione soon realized that she was not alone.

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	3. The Uninvited Guest

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Chapter Three

'The Uninvited Guest'

The broom was a Portkey, but how it got there, and why it was in the broom cupboard in Gryffindor Tower, she had to figure out later.  Hermione heard music in the background and the sudden halt of conversation between many people.

She realized that it had become quiet quite suddenly.  She smelled hard liquor and champagne, possibly prestige cuvee of Vins Mousseux.  A sweet plumeria scent imbued the room, and the savor of heavy cologne and burnt parchment lingered in the air.  It seemed as if she was in some sort of bar.  However, except when she looked up, she found that she was in a beautiful, lofty, Edwardian-styled quarters.  There were thick, heavy, custom-made drapes with deep golden threads crisscrossed to outline its beautifully embroidered Victorian patterns. A grand marble-framed hearth with historical styled tiles caught Hermione's eye; the fire blazing behind its cast iron arched inset was as blue as the ornately carved pillars that flanked the beautiful marble floors and the intricately designed 14th century ceiling.  The room was dim with a scarlet glow in every corner illuminating the decorative fringes of oil paintings on the walls; one of them reminded her of Oviglio.

Hermione realized she had landed in the middle of the room, just beneath the spiral glass chandelier; the old broom Portkey lay inches from her feet.  Hermione would have thought the beautiful room belonged to Muggles, if it hadn't been littered with blurry visions of wizards all around her.

When she looked up, she saw faces she wished over and over were just figments of an oddly realistic dream.  But she was dead wrong.  The situation she was in was very real indeed; confirmed by the silky, dreadful voice of the last person she wanted to see.

"Well, well, well…" Malfoy dragged the words as if it sounded more intimidating the longer it left his sinewy lips.

"What the hell do we have here?"  Hermione stood up to her full height, the arrhythmic beatings of her heart banging against her ribcage as she realized she had crashed a private party that had not anticipated her arrival.  Palms sweating and fingers twitching violently in closed fists, Hermione threw her head up and gazed at the approaching man, determined not to bow down to the son-of-a-bitch.  Malfoy stood inches away from Hermione's face, eyeing her in a most satisfied manner.

Hermione knew that all eyes were on her, but never broke her stare from Lucius' malicious eyes.  His face was stern and unyielding, and he gazed down upon her as if she were a filthy parasite.

"It's the Mudblood girl from Hogwarts.  How the hell did she get here?" Macnair growled.

"How did she indeed, Ruloph?  But I think the more important question is 'what is she doing here?"  Lucius raised an eyebrow, awaiting her reply. 

When Hermione didn't answer, Macnair stepped forward and shouted furiously, raising his hand to strike her across the face.  "Answer him, you filthy piece of Mudblood!" But before his stroke fell, she seized her wand from beneath her cloak.  Tossing her chestnut-colored hair to the side, she slipped her other hand beneath his cloak and pulled out his wand with his hands held still in an upraised position and before he could take another breath, her wand was aimed at his throat while his own conducted towards his genital area.

Macnair froze with his hand still in midair; his wide bloodshot eyes nearly protruded its sockets.  The room went still, and it seemed that everyone had held their breath, slightly taken aback with the sudden retaliation.  She inched herself forward and him backwards.  She lowered her wand to his heart and with narrowed eyes and a voice dangerously malicious, she enunciated every word so he could hear the danger in each one spoken.

"Touch me and-I-will-hex-you-in-so-many-ways-you'll-need-your-Dark-Lord-to-undo-the-damage."   Macnair glared with malicious eyes.  Lucius hadn't even moved, a bit disconcerted that Macnair was cornered by a girl; let alone a Mudblood, and this Mudblood in particular.

Macnair, whose eyes were boiling with fury, was shaking fiercely from wanting to rip the bitch's head off; if only she hadn't cornered him so well and so suddenly; he was turned on.

Hermione, now locking gazes with Macnair, refused to yield to such trash, but had noticed Lucius from the corner of her eye.  Unmoved by her quick-witted retaliation against his fellow Death Eater, Lucius simply tucked a hand under his elbow while holding his drink in the other.  He slowly moved the glass of mousseux to his lips and eyed her from the thin rim of his glass. The atmosphere was uncanny and completely still.  She knew she was in for, and would be dead in a matter of seconds.  Despite her braveness and hard looks, her heart was pounding ridiculously fast, sure to knock her out soon if it didn't slow down.  A shaken Hermione, furiously angry at the rather attractive, sallow faced man at the tips of her wand and his, was nearly lost in her thoughts when in an instant she was surrounded by a ring of formally dressed Death Eaters' wands pointing straight at her.

Hermione held her breath and steadied her shaking hand and realized that a rather corrupt smile had slid across Macnair's face.  "You didn't honestly think you'd get away with cornering me and then live to talk about it, did you?  I'll have your head for this, mudwhore."  His voice was so soft now that it was barely a whisper.  "If I'm lucky, I'll take you for my own keeping and dismember you myself.  I rather like a good challenge."  Then, looking at the wands she held ever carefully in her hands, he narrowed his eyes and said through curled lips, "And if you're lucky, I'll let you keep your arms," he sneered with desperate coveting eyes that never left hers.

Hermione knew the sick bastard was bluffing till it hit her that Macnair worked at the Ministry beheading creatures for a living.

He looked at her hungrily and let out a soft, groaning bark.

"Well, as fun as that sounds, I don't think that would be necessary," came a mellifluous voice from outside the ring of Death Eaters.

Everyone turned to see who had spoken… but Hermione would have recognized the voice anywhere.  Snape was leaning on a back pillar, his features hardly visible, though his lean body was outlined by the scarlet glow from behind him.  Hermione was shocked to see Snape there and more at what he had just let out.  Everyone had turned their heads towards him, and Lucius' face turned from deadpan to shock.

"And what do you mean by that, Severus?" Lucius asked venomously.  Snape didn't answer Malfoy.  Instead, he looked from Lucius to Hermione, and walked slowly over to her.

"Hermione, put down the wand before you sever something of value to Macnair."  Hermione looked at Snape and back to a cautious Ruloph.

Hermione, still in her battle stance, felt her Potions Master's deft fingers glide across her arm and down to her slightly shaken fingers.  He took Macnair's wand away from her tight grasp, effortlessly.

Macnair snatched his wand from Snape, stepped back and pointed it towards her.

Snape turned to Macnair and eyed him dangerously.  "That won't be necessary, Ruloph though I understand why you should feel threatened by her," he said insultingly to a livid Macnair.

"I thought I told you not to follow me when I attend my important business, you foolish girl," he said, turning to Hermione.  Hermione, puzzled at what Snape was playing at, simply looked at him and didn't answer, which was exactly what he had hoped she had the wits to do.

"So she knows about tonight then, Severus," Malfoy asked through gritted teeth, determined to find out what it was exactly that Snape was up to.

"Of course she does, Lucius.  Doesn't your wife know where you disappear to in the middle of the night?"

"Is this Mudblood your wife?"  

"She could be," he said with an air of prospect.

The room went quiet and a suspicious Malfoy eyed an impassive looking Snape.

"What are you playing at, Severus?" Lucius asked suspiciously.

"Well, Lucius, I obviously gave you too much credit.  I thought you would see the obvious."  Lucius, still eyeing Severus, turned to Hermione and curled his lip to the side in disgust.  "She's with me - So I advise…" Snape turned to Macnair and eyed him intently, "that you return her to me with everything… intact.  But I'm sure that won't be a problem, Ruloph, seeing as how she nearly dismembered you first," he leered wickedly.

Snape turned to look at an unhappy Macnair and then back to Lucius.  

"And why is it that no one has ever heard of this… coadunation," Avery interrupted.

"Frelerik, please, don't use words you can choke on.  I'm sure you could figure out who the girl is and piece the parts together… or would you like me to break it down for you into diagrams?"  A rather intimidated Avery was abashed by Snape's usual cruel remarks.  Snape's lips curled into something Hermione figured had intended to be a smile, or at least a nasty one.

Snape was just as nasty and intimidating to his fellow Death Eaters, as she knew him to be to her fellow students—well, except to Malfoy, of course.  Which of the two was nastier, she could not tell at the moment.

"Well, Severus, a Mudblood and a student.  You're either very desperate, or very stupid.  And what may I ask was the old fool's reaction to your… er… arrangement."

"He is against it, and I've given him my word that I will not see her."

"And you see her still, why? What do you see in such- filth?" Hermione threw Malfoy a vile look.  Malfoy turned to her, his breath heavy against her face.  "What could possibly interest you, Severus?"  His eyes running slowly across her breasts and down between her thighs, "if it's innocence you want, I could offer that to you," Lucius said, turning his eyes to a glaring Snape.

"Lucius, please, don't insult the girl so clumsily."  Snape looked slyly at Malfoy than back to Hermione. "I would hardly call her innocent."  Everyone in the room laughed at this, and Hermione feeling tramped on by the man she had always considered a bastard couldn't have placed him higher on her shit-list.

"Well," said Lucius.  "I must say I'm rather disappointed in your insipid taste in women, but if she's the flavor of the week, we still have a problem."

"She's here to stay."

"Is that a joke?  Don't insult my intelligence, Severus; I know who the girl is.  Do you honestly think she will not run back to Potter and tell him of our private meeting?"

"Tell me something, Lucius, how did you think I attained most of the information about Potter for this meeting?"

"Are you telling me she is working against Potter?  That's more absurd than Avery using words that exceeds his vocabulary."

Avery broke in…"Uh, could you two not…?" 

"I assure you, Lucius, she's my accomplice behind our plans."

"I think Draco would say otherwise."

"So would Avery, and he's here.  I doubt he has any idea what we've been discussing for the past fifteen minutes."

"You know I came third in my…", Avery interrupted again.

"It's not his fault incompetence runs deep in his family."

"Well, Avery, I believe you've just received a compliment from Lucius."

"Well I'm not as incompetent as you think I…"

"So what you're telling me, Severus, is that the girl is now retrieving information for the Dark Lord?" Lucius interrupted.

"No.  For me."

"And why would she turn against Potter for you?"

Snape smiled at the anxious man and turned to Hermione.  Uneasy at how Severus was going to get himself out of this one, she eyed him warily.  Snape stepped closer to her, his tall, thin stature towering over her.  She felt her heart stop abruptly before it jumped to a hundred and fifty beats a minute.  He brushed strands of hair off her face and looked at her with indulgent eyes, as she had never seen before.

The scent of his cologne invaded her senses, and she felt the pit of her stomach knotting up.  Her breath, unsteady, was encouraging her heart's misbehavior.  Her heart pounded faster than it had all night, eventually missing a beat or two.  He tucked the loosely wound strands gently behind her ear and ran his finger along her jaw line, down her neck, across her chest, between her breasts, and then stopped; along with her heart.  Hermione had tilted her head back slightly, her eyes closed she released her breath and shook beneath his long deft fingers; her mind was completely blank, though her emotions were overwhelming.  He saw what he was doing to her and moved closer so his body brushed hers lightly; shivers invaded her body, shocking her erotically.  She let out a soft moan and clasped her fingers around the side of his shirt and pulled him closer to her.

Various pairs of eyes looked at her hungrily from around the room and Snape, who stopped abruptly and stepped away from Hermione, heard her let out a sharp "No."

Snape, feeling disgusted inside, turned to Lucius, who in a fleeting moment, he noticed, had an aching look on his face before it disappeared.

"Does that answer your question?"  Lucius stared back with a vacant expression.

"Well, if that is all for the night, I believe I shall return to Hogwarts and take back what's mine - from your hungry perverted eyes."

Snape heard murmurs and protests of "aw's" and "no's."

"Why don't you leave her here for the night, Severus?" said a familiar broad-jawed pale face; Hermione couldn't quite remember which name it belonged to.

"I'm afraid it is past her bedtime, and Hermione has a long night ahead of her still."

"Well, aren't you the romantic?" said a blonde older replica of Pansy Parkinson from behind them.  Severus ignored her and took a rather flushed Hermione by the arm and led her out the room through large double oak doors.  Hermione could feel Lucius' eyes burning through the back of her neck before the doors closed behind her.

Hermione was surprised to see that the doors had led her and Snape to a deserted hallway that she knew was not a part of the room she had just left. It was a long hallway that seemed to go on forever, with a door or two on the side, and eventually a mirror or a window.  Snape had been leading the way, ignoring Hermione the whole time.  Hermione didn't dare to speak.  It became very awkward; she wished she were anywhere but there with him.  She was too busy thinking and feeling how ashamed she was with what happened in the room at the party that she didn't realize that Snape had stopped abruptly in the middle (so it seemed) of the hallway.  She bumped in to him.  He threw his head around and glared at her, but still refused to say anything.  Hermione quickly looked away and followed Snape behind a wooden door and into a dark room where he took her arm and placed her hand on a jar on the windowsill beneath his and she felt that pull she hated so much when she traveled by Portkey.

 She landed and looked up to see that they were in a dark alley.  Snape walked away from her and she followed instantly; he took a left and then a right, and did so for the next five minutes.  Hermione was nearly dizzy from the zigzagging, but still hadn't dared to open her mouth to protest.  Snape halted again, but this time, next to a metal trashcan that reeked from moldy fish and a hint of chocolate pudding… odd.

Snape took her hand and pulled her towards him.  Shocked, Hermione did not know what to expect, when all of a sudden she was in Hogsmeade, standing by the gates leading up to Hogwarts.  With a sigh of relief, she turned around and faced Snape to thank him for getting her out of the mess she put herself in tonight, when suddenly she felt hard hands slam against her back, pushing her from behind; she flew forward and collided with a thick tree, when she was suddenly whipped around by her Potions Master to see the wrath brewing in his eyes.

_______________________________

***


	4. Snape's Wrath

***

Chapter Four

'Snape's Wrath'

"What the – Professor, what are you-." 

Snape took Hermione by surprise and pushed her forward, knowing she'd slam into the thick oak tree ahead, hoping it would knock some sense into her.  She had no time to protect herself, too surprised by what took place so suddenly.

"You stupid girl; how reckless can you be?  It's bad enough I have to sit through a whole class with you up front, irritating me with your very presence; but to save your life by putting my cover and my life in jeopardy is enough.  What the hell do you think you're doing, Granger?"

"I'm sorry, I just…"

"Shut up," he snapped.  She nearly flew back from the harshness of his tone.  "Who the hell do you think you are?  Isn't it enough Potter has to waltz around the school with his fat head like it was his own palace, then to have you waltz right behind him, but no, I guess it isn't, is it?  You have to have your glory, too," he spat.

"Professor, please, it's not what you think, It was an…"

"SILENCE," he snapped heatedly.  "Your childish behavior, Granger, was what I always expected from you.  What the Headmaster was thinking to appoint you Head Girl was without a doubt a mistake."  Snape was obviously going for the gold.  Whatever his goals were, he succeeded.  Hermione, pinned between his cold hands and the hard bark of the tree behind her, didn't bother to move.  She stood aghast, teary-eyed, and pummeled emotionally.

She felt each word as acutely as he had spat them out, and the tears ran freely down her cheeks, soaking the collar of her cloak.  Hermione mustered all the strength she could to explain what had really happened.  "Professor, I was just trying -"

"To show the underclassmen how Gryffindor you are by filling their heads with anecdotes of your heroic attempts to bring down the Dark Lord's followers."

"Please, I had no idea…"

"Of course you didn't; I had hoped your brain was not as thick as your mane."

"Professor, if you'd just let me explain!"

"I don't have time to listen to you prattle on about your lack of common sense.  Tell me something I don't already know."

"But you're hardly being fair."

"Do you want to know what isn't fair, Granger," his voice low and the silk permeated back into it, "…that the Headmaster and staff of this school have been enduring countless numbers of sleepless nights to bring down the Dark Lord and to ensure the safety of these students, just to have you come along and mess it all up in a night of idiocy so you could prove to Potter you're just as Gryffindor as he is."

"I assure you, Professor, that was not what…"

"I said SILENCE, Granger!  After the trouble and danger you've put this school in tonight, you are in no position to assure me or anyone else of anything."

"I was only trying to carry out my duties…"

"And is this the example you were trying to show your peers and underclassmen.  That you're a troublemaking, attention-seeking know-it-all… but are you not also the Head Girl of this institution?"

"But tonight, Professor, I…"

"Are you the Head Girl or not, Granger?" he snarled.

Hermione was overcome with uncensored emotions.  She had never felt so irresponsible and humiliated in her life.  Snape had made sure she knew it and shouldered every bit of the blame.  What made it worse was that he called her '_granger_', as if it was the remnant of a word too degrading to say.

Snape released her, and Hermione saw the disgusted look on his face as he turned away from her and walked up towards the castle.  She did not follow after him; she slid down the trunk of the tree and hung her head between her knees, with her arms folded around her, letting the tears flow freely down her face and into the dirty ground.  It was still dark out, although Hermione could tell it would soon be dawn by the looks of the eastern sky.  Snape stopped where he was and turned to the crying Hermione.

"Oh, get up, Miss Granger, or I'll have Filch come and fetch you with the wheelbarrow."

Hermione reluctantly drew herself up and didn't bother to wipe the tears off her face, and didn't want to be anywhere near her insensitive Potions Master.  She hung her head and made her way slowly up to the castle, not paying any attention to where she was going.  When Snape got up to the wooden doors of Hogwarts, he turned around to a blotchy, sniveling Hermione and said with a sneer on his face.  "Oh, and Miss Granger, in case you thought I had forgotten, sixty points from Gryffindor for your failed, dare I say, lousy attempts at being… bold or brave."  Hermione believed there was no way she could hate that bastard any more than she did at that moment, but this it would not be the last time she felt that way.

_____________

***

A/N: Thanks Shannon, in case I haven't said it already ;p


	5. Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Five  
Behind Closed Doors  
  
  
  


When Hermione arrived at the castle, she wasn't surprised to see Dumbledore, half the staff, Harry, and Ron waiting for them. 

'Great this is just what I need,' Hermione thought when she saw the anxious crowd.  
  
Dumbledore approached them and was reaching out for Hermione's hand when McGonagall beat him to her.

"Come here child!  Are you alright?  What happened to you?  Severus what on earth happened to her?"  
  
"She'll live, Minerva--"  
  
"Well, her swollen face could have fooled me."  
  
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, her face is not--"  
  
"Give her to me!" Madame Pomfrey cut in.  "She needs to go up to the infirmary."  
  
"Hermione are you okay?"  Ron cupped her shoulders as he pulled her to the side.  He whispered softly so no one could hear them: "Harry and I were really worried about you.  We didn't know what else to do."  
  
"Do you need to see Madame Pomfrey, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore inquired softly to the quiet Hermione before she shook her head in reply.  
  
"Headmaster, the girl is in no condition to know if she needs medical attention," Pomfrey argued.  
  
"Poppy, I promise to send her to you as soon as I am through talking with her.  We'll go to my office now."  
  
The hallway was crowded with everyone arguing amongst themselves about what was best for Hermione and what she was supposed to do.  The only two people, who remained quiet, stood as far away as possible from each other. 

The crowd moved as they talked.  Hermione, who still remained silent, heard the party around her inquiring about where she was and if she was all right, but all she could do was nod silently.  She was not paying attention to anything going around her.   
  
"Headmaster, surely this can wait until tomorrow morning the girl has had some rest", McGonagall asked.  
  
"No, my dear; this can not wait."  
  
"Harry and Ron, you two can wait for Hermione if you'd like, but she will be in my office for a while so I suggest that the two of you returned to your rooms and rest until morning."

  
"No thanks, Headmaster!  Harry and I are not tired.  We'll wait for her," Ron said instantly.   
  
The Headmaster looked thoughtfully at them before nodding and motioned for them to follow him.  
  
"Very well-- Severus, Hermione, follow me please!"   
  
  
When the crowd arrived at the entrance to the Headmaster's office, Albus stopped to give the password: "apple beans", and then turned to Harry and Ron to tell them to wait outside. 

Meanwhile one of the two stone gargoyles guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office looked up from his stone rest to wink at an edgy McGonagall.   
  
"Honestly Freverique, have you no shame at all?" McGonagall flushed.  

The stone gargoyle came to life again and said in a sweet French accent: "But oui oui my sweet pea, you 'ave been ignorrring me?"  
  
Dumbledore turned from Harry and Ron and looked considerately to the live gargoyle.  

"Aah Freverique, I was wondering when you would be speaking again.  It's been a very long time since--"  
  
"Oui, but I want to spend ze time with ze layde!"  Freverique did not look too happy to see the Headmaster.

  
"Well, my friend, I am afraid that I have kept our Minerva occupied for the past couple weeks," he explained to the anxious gargoyle who was obviously ignoring him whilst he batted his eyes profusely at Minerva.  
  
"But of courze, you alw steal her away from Freverique," he frowned at the Headmaster.  
  
"My dear Frev, you know that I cannot run this institution without Minerva, and she has…"  
  
"Nonsense, you want her for yourself, oui?"  
  
"I will try and have her back as soon as possible, and then you can have her all to yourself."  

Professor McGonagall flushed at this before she snapped: "Well, as much as I'd like to hang around and listen to the two of you pass me around like a hot roll, we have important matters to attend to."  
  
"Yes, yes," Dumbledore said as he walked up to the spiraling staircase behind the gargoyles. 

When McGonagall walked by Freverique, he blew her a kiss and aimed to grab for her behind when she smacked his hand off with the tip of her wand.  She could faintly hear him when she reached the top of the stairs before closing the door: "I likeh strong weemen."   
  
  
When they arrived in the Headmaster's office he motioned for Hermione to sit down before taking a seat behind his own desk. The atmosphere was dim and calm except for the loud snores of the paintings on the wall. Hermione noticed one of the paintings, the one snoring the loudest, had one eye slightly open. 

  
McGonagall and Snape remained standing on either side of Hermione--quietly waiting for the Headmaster to speak.

Hermione noticed that Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix was not in the office. 

She hung her head and did not look up.  She was too afraid to see the disappointment in anyone's face.   
  
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore said softly.  "I apologize for my recklessness.  If I had been more vigilant tonight, you would not have left these grounds."  
  
"Please Headmaster, I take full responsibility for my actions.  And I should be the one apologizing for not coming to you or any of the other professors when I was told about Malfoy's plan."  
  
Dumbledore looked benignly at the distressed girl before him, who was still unable to look up. 

"My dear, what happened to you tonight was not your fault.  But I do need you to tell me everything that happened from the time Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley informed you of this note to the time you arrived at the party.  Can you do that?"

She nodded slightly.

   
Despite the Headmaster's kind words, there was nothing he could say that would make her feel that this was anyone's fault but hers. 

  
There was a long pause and Hermione, withholding all tears while her hands remained tucked between her thighs, began her account of the night's events.  She spoke softly enough for the three adults to hear her.   
  
"Harry and Ron informed me of the note, and Malfoy's plan.  At half past eleven, I left my quarters to go up to the Gryffindor tower to meet Malfoy there, but I waited for nearly 40 minutes and no one had showed up. I was inside the prefect's bathroom waiting and was about to give up and come back to my room when I heard footsteps outside. 

"I walked out to meet Malfoy but he had already walked up towards the tower, so I followed him."  The was a large lump forming in Hermione's throat as she talked.  She could not stand the thought of everyone's scrutinizing eyes burning into her sides.  She paused and waited to see if the Headmaster was going to interrupt her, but he didn't, so she went on.   
  
She reluctantly explained everything from there to the broom, the secret door, and up to the point she saw Snape at the party. 

"…And the next thing I know, Professor Snape showed up, and…well," she looked up at the Headmaster who she figured had noticed her reluctance in continuing with her story and hoped that he would not disregard it.  She did not want to get into the details of what occurred after Snape arrived.   
  
The Headmaster reached across the desk and handed Hermione a lemon drop like the doctor would to a child after a checkup.  And that was exactly how she felt in the close ambiance of that office, a child.  She refused the sweet before glancing quickly to the side. 

Albus realized that Snape was ignoring Hermione more than usual.   
  
"Did they hurt you at all?" Minerva asked.  
  
"No!"  

Albus and McGonagall both exchanged quick glances.  
  
"All right, thank you, Miss Granger!  If you want to leave now you may," he said standing up.  "It is nearly morning and you really should get some sleep."  
  
Hermione nodded and was about to stand up when Snape she was stopped abruptly by Snape.

"Sit down Miss Granger!  This meeting is not yet over."  
  
Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster looked at Snape in surprise.

Hermione was also incredulous and wondered what more did her dour Potions master want with her.  She had been embarrassed enough for the night and was very close at just dashing out the door and up to her private quarters.  
  
"Well, Headmaster, I'm afraid Miss Granger has failed to tell you why she walked away unscathed," he said icily.  
  
"Yes, Severus that has not slipped my mind.  I was expecting you to explain along with the usual, and without the presence of Miss Granger.  She has already told us her account of tonight's events.  She needs not to be here for our discussion, does she?"  
  
"Oh, but I'm afraid she does, Albus.  Because, she has now foolishly involved herself with our plans against the attack."  
  
Professor McGonagall shot Snape an incredulous look.

"Severus, what are you doing?  She does not need to know this information.  And what in Merlin's name do you mean by 'involved'?"  
  
"If you would allow me, Minerva, I will gladly explain," he said sarcastically to his opposing Head of House. "You see, other than the fact that Miss Granger, here, is a muggle-born, she crashed a private party of pure-blooded wizards, uninvited, and then attempted to assault one of the Death-Eaters." 

Snape couldn't help but notice a slight grin itching to appear on McGonagall's face as he spoke.  "She has also brought it upon herself to convince the Death-Eaters that she is retrieving information about Potter for me," he added softly.  
  
"What?  No, I did not!"  Hermione's head shot up so quickly that the Headmaster started.  "Excuse me, Professor, but I did not convince _your friends_ anything of the sort.  It was you."

  
Snape turned to the girl seated next to him and looked down at her with impassiveness.  
  
"Trust me Miss Granger," he said wryly, "you convinced them very well."

Recollections of the night flashed quickly into her mind: his fingers, her heartbeat, his scent, her moan, his hands, and her shame.  She winced inwardly as she turned from the coldness of his eyes.  
  
Dumbledore examined them closely.  He felt McGonagall's eyes burning into his.  He dared not to look at her; if there was one thing Dumbledore knew to fear, it was the wrath of a woman.  
  
"Good Heaven's Severus," she exclaimed, "what on earth are you talking about?"   
  
"I am talking about the girl," he snapped suddenly.  He paused for a moment to calm himself before continuing softly.  "What I meant, Minerva, was that the girl now requires my…attention," he said with utter disgust and humiliation.  
  


Dumbledore sighed resignedly.  "I see; well, then, tell me what happened tonight Severus, and from the beginning!"   
  
"Wait, Albus, the girl; there has to be something we could do?"  There was a hint of pity and grief in her tone.

   
"I'm afraid that it is too late Minerva.  They are expecting her to provide them with any valuable information on Harry," he said softly—looking every bit of his hundred and something years.   
  
"Yes, I know that, Albus, but what of the other matter," she said through tightly pursed lips.  
  
"By all means, Minerva, why don't you come out and say it!" Snape snapped again.     
  
"We can never pull it off," she continued.  "Albus, they are going to find out that she… she—oh, for heavens' sake!  This is ludicrous.  A student, Severus?"   
  
"Yes, please feel free to make me out as the pervert I already deem myself to be," he barked.  
  
"That is not what I meant; I mean could there not have been any other way?"  
  
"No," came a soft voice from the center of the room. 

Hermione had heard enough of her professors' quarrelling.  She couldn't stand them suffering because of her stupidity.

"Professor, I'm sorry to have caused all this trouble.  I know that you are worried about me, but the Headmaster is right. There is nothing else that I can do.  

"You see, until Professor Snape showed up, I had honestly thought that I was going to die. I never thought that I would make it out of that room alive.  I have found myself in many situations before, Professor, but I was never as certain about dying as I was tonight.  And I am sure of this because I thought about all the people I cared about in an instant and how I truly believed that I was not going to see them again". 

Hermione's whispering was barely audible, and she could see that McGonagall's eyes were welling up whilst she spoke. 

"I wasn't going to leave without a fight," she continued, "but nevertheless, I would've died in that room if Professor Snape had not convinced them….that I was in.… love with him and working against Harry for him," she said hastily.  "I know they fell for it because I--well, _he nearly convinced me," she said ashamedly.  "If I don't do this, Professor, his cover will be blown and all our lives will be at risk."  
  
"But child, do you understand what you'll be asked to do?  You'll have to convince the school and those closest to you that you're still the same Hermione; that nothing has changed, while at the same time convincing the Death-Eaters and their spies that you're… in love with the Professor. How are you going to do that without either blowing your cover or Professor Snape's?  And what valuable information on Mr. Potter are you planning on giving them to carry on this charade."  
  
Hermione shook her head as she pondered those words.  Her hands shook between her thighs.  She stared holes in her lap when no answers or viable plan came to her. _

"I'm not sure, Professor.  I'll just have to figure something out, but it's done, and I have no other choice."  
  
The room went quiet, and all the snores that filled the room noisily just minutes ago were now gone.  All the figures in the paintings were as still as Muggle photos as the discussion caught their attention.  
  
"Hermione, are you sure you can do this," asked the Headmaster.  Hermione simply nodded, though her expression was tensed and apprehensive.   
  
"Well then," the Headmaster articulated.  "I don't see why you should not be here for the rest of this discussion. "Severus, please continue!"  
  
______________________  
  



	6. Snape's Account

Chapter Six  
  
Snape's Account  
  
  
  
Before Snape continued with his account of the night's events, he stood alert looking intently at the seated Headmaster and asked him if the girl was to be trusted with such information. 

"Headmaster, I can't help but agree with McGonagall on this. The girl does not need to know this information.  It's too risky; besides, if her memory is meddled with, all our plans will be revealed.  Are we to take that risk?"  
  
"Severus, the two of you have to work together now to make sure your covers aren't exposed.  I hate to say this, but I can not help but feel that this new turn of events will benefit our side.  She will not know of our plans against the attack, she will only be told of such like you discover from your meetings."  
  
"So then; professor by morning, and sitter by night; how very convenient."   
  
"You forgot spy," the Headmaster added nonchalantly."  
  
"Yes well, teaching and spying I can tolerate, but this," he stated with a rigid gesture of his hand towards Hermione like she was an object in the room he so wished was a footrest.  

The Headmaster was about to defend her when he was interrupted.  
  
"Severus, please-- feel free to call me Hermione now that we're going to be lovers," she said daringly.  "Oh, I'm sorry," she added deviously, "can I call you Severus?"  
  
Hermione stared at the incredulous Potions Master blistering with fury.  The professor seemed as if he had grown an outer concrete layer-- his veins distended beneath his tight lean face and his temples throbbing from grinding hard on his teeth.  He masked his ugliest sneer yet before turning to the insolent fleece mop at his side.  

"Listen to me very carefully, Miss Granger, for I will not repeat myself in the future," he said heatedly.  "If you ever address me so informal again-- I will knock so much points off your house the impact will tame your mane."  
  
Hermione stood up quickly as her tresses flew across her face and over her shoulders, making her look even more menacing.  "What is it with you and my hair, Professor?  Do you somewhat feel threatened by my 'mane' as you so call it," she snapped, feeding her Potions Master's fury.   
  
"It is your manners that offend, Miss Granger.  Your mane is what I suspect triggers your inanity, unless it runs deeper than that," he spat through pursed lips and bloodshot eyes.  
  
"Then I suppose your greasy pelt explains your callousness," she shot back to the livid Professor.  
  
"All right, that is enough," McGonagall demanded.  
  
"Ten points from Gryffindor Miss Granger, for addressing a Professor so informal, and ten more for offending your Potions master.  McGonagall stared at them in disbelief.  "Now, Severus, if you would please continue-- the sun is rising and the students will be up soon." She threw an incredulous look towards the Headmaster who was obviously entertained if not interested with the professor and his Head girl's behavior towards each other.  
  
"Fine," he muttered.  "The meeting was just as we suspected," Snape began.  "It was Dolohov tonight, and I didn't want to risk asking about it in case I was suspected, but it was definitely one of the parchments.   
  
"Was Tom there," Dumbledore asked?  
  
"No, the Dark Lord wasn't there again.  And I still don't know which of the Death Eaters he chose as his secret keeper.  I suspect that it's Malfoy, but it just seems too easy. If it weren't for the fact that it was he who announced the Dark Lord's plans, I would not have believed him to be the secret keeper.  I still have not figured out what was on the two previous parchments, although it may have had something to do with the arrival of Miss Granger."  
  
If Hermione was puzzled by the information flowing from the lips of her Potions Master, she did not show it. Instead she listened intently and made sure she didn't let a single information slip from her mind.  
  
"Yes, it's what I assumed too," said Dumbledore. 

Hermione shot her head up whilst she eyed the Headmaster warily.  
  
"Wait, what exactly do you mean by that, Headmaster?  Are you saying that I was expected to be there tonight."  
  
"Well not necessarily you," the Headmaster replied.  "But yes, Miss Granger, I suppose you can say that it was expected.  
  
"What?  By whom?  Why?  Wait!  So does that mean that this isn't really—entirely my fault?"  
  
"Good Heavens child, what on earth possessed you to believe that it was?" her Head of House interrupted.

   
Hermione shot Snape a nasty look as she thought of the shit he put her through earlier knowing that she really had nothing to do with it.  She wished to gods that she could just get up and slam the bastard against the wall.  She looked averted her gaze from him when she realized he was not and would not pay any attention to her.  

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, Headmaster, please continue!" she said with a smile back on her face.   
  
"Well I'm glad you're feeling better Miss Granger," said Albus. 

"Thanks," she replied, feeling relaxed for the first time since she walked into her Potions class on Friday.  
  
"Yes, Severus, there are simply too many unanswered questions to suspect Lucius as Tom's secret keeper," the Headmaster continued.  "What happened to the parchment given to Dolohov?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
"Same as the others--he threw it in the hearth after he read it. No one else knows what's on that parchment but him.  We were given specific orders not to ask.  But I still don't understand why he wanted the parchments burnt.  A simple vanishing or flaming spell could have done it, but I guess the Dark Lord is taking every precaution."   
  
"Maybe," Dumbledore said pensively.  "I suspect it has something to do with the charms that were cast on the parchments, but I might be wrong. Have you picked anything up on his whereabouts?"  
  
"No, we still don't know where he is.  He is still giving out orders, but through whom I haven't any clue.  It puzzles me why the Dark Lord feels he has to go into hiding.  It's not like him."  
  
"No Severus, I'm afraid he is not in hiding.  Tom is up to something and we need to make sure he doesn't carry out his plans, before it is too late."  Dumbledore opened a drawer on the left side of his desk.  He shifted through the papers and oddments looking for something. 

Hermione, McGonagall, and Snape were watching him intently wondering what it was he was looking for. 

"Ah," the Headmaster exclaimed.  "I knew I had one stashed in here," he said pulling out a chocolate covered cherry drop.  
  
"Honestly Albus, chocolate in the morning," Minerva scowled?  
  
Dumbledore popped the candy in his mouth, smiled, and continued.  "Was everyone there?"   
  
The three looked at him incredulously.  
  
"Yes, but not at the same time; eventually, one or two would leave the room and return, and then there were some who were late."   
  
"How many more parchments left?"  
  
"Three.  We weren't told when the next meeting would be, he's keeping us all in the dark."  
  
"As usual; he's cautious that we don't find out what his plans are."  
  
"Yes, well he's doing a good job," Minerva exclaimed.  "Do you have any idea who the next parchment will go to?"  
  
Snape looked wearily at the Headmaster as he attempted to clear his cluttered mind.  He relaxed himself and walked over to the corner and pulled a chair closer to the Headmaster's desk.

"No, not until the next meeting."  He ran his fingers through his hair, and with his elbows propped on his knees; he buried his face in his hand, massaging his temples with his long, thin, potion-stained fingers.  
  
"There's something else, Headmaster."  Snape's voice was soft and his eyes full of disappointment.  "Pettigrew has been found. His head was found skewered at the edge of the Galadon forest by the Hogervow village." 

Hermione let out a sharp gasp and clasped her hand instantly around her mouth.  Snape's lip curled into a sneer as he glared at her for her trifling interruption. 

"If you can't handle this information, Miss Granger, kindly remove yourself from this meeting.  I'm sure there are better things you'd like to do with your time."  
  
Snape turned back to a grave Dumbledore.  Hermione noticed that this information was upsetting news to the Headmaster.  
  
"Very well, it's just as I feared.  Do you know who murdered him?"  
  
"No, I'm not even sure who it was that found him, but I'm sure it will be in the paper soon.  I'm sorry I didn't get to him first.  I'm surprised he was even found.  No one knew of his whereabouts. He wasn't even mentioned in tonight's meeting.  It was Nott who told me he was found, and he was upset that he wasn't the one who killed him.  The meeting wasn't as long as the previous-- just the usual discussions and the boy. Lucius also announced that he was throwing a ball next week."  
  
"What's the occasion?" inquired a puzzled Minerva.  
  
"He wouldn't say. But there is one more thing Headmaster.  I believe someone is feeding Lucius information about the Order.  I've been monitoring his whereabouts since he let it slip three months ago when he received the first parchment that he hadn't got any sleep the night before.  I didn't suspect anything then until I saw him at the Serpent's Club last month when he asked me to brew him a sleeping potion because he hadn't had any sleep for the two previous nights. I didn't want to tell you unless I was certain, so last Thursday I called his son in and…er…_misinformed_ him that I had flooed his father on the thirteenth but he wasn't home.  He told me he remembered his father was out all night."   
  
Hermione's face was all screwed up.  She had no idea where Severus was going with this, and she wondered if the Headmaster and McGonagall were just as puzzled, till she noticed the fear in their eyes.   
  


"So," Severus continued, "unless it's just a mere coincidence that Lucius is having trouble sleeping on the nights of the full moon, I'd think he found out.  
  


"It's impossible, how could he have found out," Minerva exclaimed.  "We were discreet, and the charms," she stammered.  "It has to be someone in the Order.  How else would he know when we held our meetings? If he found out we knew about the attack and our counter, it would all be ruined."  
  
"Well, hopefully we'll find out soon, before all our hard work is exposed.  But I doubt it was from inside the Order," Dumbledore said wearily.  "Unless, I am getting too old to notice when I am being deceived. But let's hope for the culprit's sake that he isn't a member of the Order.  So, if that's all for tonight—excuse me--today, it's a beautiful morning and I think we have duties to attend to.  Minerva I'll need you to check on this broom closet and report back to me, and Severus, how is the potion coming?"  
  
"It's on schedule, the aconite won't be ready for another two weeks but it's as expected."  
  
"Excellent, that's good news. Well, Miss Granger if you haven't any questions, I'm sure Harry and Ron are eager to see you. 

Snape stirred and cleared his throat, "Miss Granger" he said without so much as looking at her, "meet me tonight after dinner in the dungeons so we could discuss our… situation.  
  
Hermione had so many questions to ask but she didn't want to risk being lashed out at by Snape, so she nodded and headed for the door.  Before she turned the knob, she looked back to the Headmaster and asked:  "I'm sorry Headmaster, and I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is going to happen to Dra- I mean Mr. Malfoy?"

   
Dumbledore looked at her in surprise and wondered what she was talking about before he realized what he meant.  

"Whatever do you mean, Miss Granger?" Minerva asked before Albus responded.  
  
"I mean what's going to happen to him?  Is he going to get punished for trying to set Harry up last night, and for nearly getting me killed," she asked a bit disconcerted that it didn't hit any of them right away that Malfoy deserved to be punished.  
  
Snape let out a soft, harsh laugh.  He eyed her as if he were not at all surprised that she had not been paying attention to anything he had said all night. 

"I'm sorry to disappoint you again, Miss Granger, but who said Mr. Malfoy had anything to do with what happened last night.   
  
  
_______________  
  
  
***


	7. Common Room Frenzy

Chapter Seven

Common Room Frenzy

"Oh, hold still child, I'm nearly through with you," Madame Pomfrey snapped to the uncomfortable, fidgeting student before her.  Hermione regretted listening to Dumbledore when he asked her to stop by and see the school nurse just before she left.

"Do you need to be so thorough, Poppy?"  Hermione had been on a first name basis with the head nurse for years from all the times she came in.  Being friends with Harry and Ron made her a regular at the hospital wing.  

"Yeah," Ron complained, "her head's still there, what else are you lookin' for?"  

"Mind your manners, Weasley, or you'll be sprawled on the floor looking for yours," she shot back to the flushed red head.  

"You have a bruise on your back," Pomfrey inquired Hermione.  "Where did you get it?"   Hermione looked confused until she remembered the incident with her and Snape.  

"Oh, I bumped into a tree on my way up last night," she lied.  

Madame Pomfrey looked at her suspiciously and shook her head.  "Well, it's a pretty deep bruise.  You must've bruised the tree as well, then."  "Let me see it."  Ron jumped up from his stool and tried to peek over Madame Pomfrey's shoulder before she shooed him away.

"All right, go on you're fine, but take some of this potion so you can get some rest."   

Hermione looked at the potion then grabbed it and flashed a smile to the vigilant nurse.  "I'll know if you took it, I always do," she shouted from inside as they left the hospital wing.

"So, tell us Hermione, how'd you really get that bruise?"

"I told you Ron, I bumped into a tree last night," she said more confidently this time and quickly changing the subject.  "Let's go have some breakfast, I'm starving and I want to get the morning paper.  There's something in there I have to read."

When Hermione, Ron, and Harry arrived at the Great Hall, they sat down at the Gryffindor table just in time for the owls to arrive with the morning mail.  A small tawny owl with thick, yellow-spotted feathers swooped down and dropped Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet right in her hand.   

"Wow, good aim," Ron shouted excitedly.  Hermione opened it up as she searched eagerly for any news and sure enough, there it was in the front page:

**Unidentified Man Found Murdered Near ****Hogervow********Village******

 _A young wizard who was walking out of the Galadon forest after a three day hunting trip with his father found the head of an unknown man skewered near the __village__ of __Hogervow__, two days ago.  The father of the boy requested that we not disclose the boy or the family name.  The man's head was badly beaten, and his face was not visible for identification after specialists examined it.  What's more is that his body is also missing.  The ministry was questioned about this mysterious murder and commented: "We have no leads as to who murdered this man, let alone his identity.  We are doing everything we can to bring this man's death to justice and to catch his murderer.  If there is anyone out there who could give us information on the culprit of this treacherous act of lunacy, please contact the Ministry as soon as possible," says Minister Cornelius Fudge…._

Hermione continued on reading silently to herself.  She looked sympathetically up at Harry, knowing how much this news would affect him.  

"What is it?  Is there something there on Voldermort?" he whispered.

"Let's get out of here Harry.  We'll go to the common room.  C'mon Ron, you've stuffed your face enough this morning."  

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were walking out of the Great Hall when Hermione snuck a glance at the Slytherin table.  She saw Malfoy sitting between Pansy and Crabbe, smacking the cinnamon roll out of his hand whilst he pointed at his love handles.  He was obviously unaware of what went down last night, Hermione thought.  Well, it won't be long before Daddy writes him and tells him to keep an eye on her.

While they were walking down the hallway on their way to the common room, Hermione explained to Harry and Ron what had happened the previous night. She started from when she went up to the Gryffindor tower, with many interruptions in between, up to the point she arrived at the party.  

When she explained to Harry and Ron what she had intended to do with Malfoy when she got up to the tower that night, they stopped abruptly in the middle of the hall and rolled over on the floor.  Tears spilled out of their eyes as they laughed hysterically.  Ron and Harry were practically entangled in a thick knot, and Ron laughed so hard that he farted right in Harry's face.  

Harry socked him playfully in the stomach, which only induced the gassing.  Hermione kicked both of them and told them to shut up and act like grown ups.  She had to stand there for a good ten minutes to pull them up only to have them relive the image of Malfoy as Slytherin Drag and fall back to the ground.  

"You two are a bunch of idiots.  I almost got killed last night, and all you can do is laugh like morons.  Get up damn it!"  

Hermione took out her wand and both boys stopped laughing instantly and got up quickly.  

"Sorry bout that 'mione," they said wiping the tears from their eyes and still trying to suppress their laughter.  

Ron wished he had woken up to a dressed up Malfoy in stilettos and a tiara, hanging above the common room hearth.  He would have roasted marshmallows all day under Malfoy.  

Hermione turned around and started walking towards the stairs to get to the common room. 

"So, what happened," Harry asked. 

"Hmm.  Oh, Snape showed up and, well…he got me out of there and brought me back, but not before that--  

"What do you mean 'he got me out of there, and brought me back?'" Ron inquired suspiciously.  "How exactly did he get you out of there and why would they let you go?"

Hermione, who had planned on only telling Harry about Snape, had also intended to leave Ron out of that part of the story.  

"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about when we got up to the common room," she lied again.  "But as I was saying," she said changing the subject, "Snape showed up but not before that bastard Macnair tried to assault me. And Malfoy's father was there too, and I was--"

Hermione stopped talking when she realized she was alone.  She looked around for the boys and noticed that had stopped a few paces back leaving her to walk by herself.  

"Harry?  Ron?  What the--?" Hermione walked back towards them wondering why they had stopped when she saw the familiar dreamy expressions they had on their pathetic faces when a certain someone was near.  

Ron and Harry were staring at a figure that had just walked out of a door to their side, and Hermione realized what it was exactly that was happening to them.

"Hello boys," said an illuminating silver-haired Fleur when she walked towards them.

"Hi," they replied with misty, coveting eyes and thick wet tongues lolling out of their watering mouths.  

"Beauziful day iz it not?" she said through pouty lips and perfectly white teeth.  

Both Harry and Ron nodded fervently with huge grins on their desperate looking faces.  Ron licked his lips, and Harry licked his hand before running it across his messy hair to pat it down.  Staring after her, they didn't notice Hermione creep up behind them and SMACK!!  

"SO SORRY I EXIST," she screamed in their faces. 

"Ow," Ron and Harry bellowed rubbing the back of their heads.  "Cheeses cries, Hermione," Ron said after snapping out of oblivion.  "You know we can't help it when she gets near us."

"Cheeses what?"  Hermione asked before Harry leaned over and whispered in her ear.  "I think he's trying to say Jesus Christ.  He got it from 'Ghostbusters' that one summer we went to the cinemas."

Hermione sneered at both of them and vowed to find a way to record their ugly faces so they could see just how pathetic they looked whenever Fleur was around them.  

Fleur Delacour had been working at Hogwarts since their sixth year.  She wanted to move back to Hogwarts and find a job that'll help improve her English.  So Dumbledore got her the job in the library as Madame Pince's assistant.  But everyone knew the main reason behind her move was to be closer to Wood, who she had been dating since the summer after Harry and Ron's fifth year.  

Oliver Wood had joined the Chuddley Cannons after he left Hogwarts and then resigned when he heard from his uncle Sturgis how bad things were getting.  He came back home and joined the Order and would stop by every now and then to report to Dumbledore and check on Fleur.

When they finally got up to the common room, they settled themselves in the back in their usual seats.  Ron had walked over to Neville and Colin who were playing chess and Hermione took it as the perfect opportunity to tell Harry about her and Snape.

"So, what you're telling me," Harry said after Hermione told him about the previous night, " is that Snape told the Death Eaters that you were giving him information about me, because you're in love with him?"  Harry stared at Hermione in disbelief.  "C'mon Hermione, you know they didn't fall for that; you're both screwed."  

"Well, if you put it that way," she scolded.  "You see Harry," she stammered.  Her voice faltered as she looked straight down at the tiny pale hands she unconsciously tucked between her thighs.  "It was sort of… like - more of an illustration rather than a persuasion," she said timidly.

"What do you mean illustration?" Harry growled.  "Did he touch you, because I'll go up there right now and castrate the son-of-a-bitch?" he said flying out of his seat.  

Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back down in his seat.  "He didn't touch me, you idiot," she lied convincingly.  

"Who didn't touch you?" Ron asked from behind her.  Hermione's eyes widened when she heard Ron's voice from behind her.  

'Damn Harry and his loud mouth,' she thought.  'Good thing no one else heard.'  

"Who's touching you?" Ron repeated.  

Harry and Hermione exchanged worried glances then looked back at him and said nothing.  "Well, what the hell are you two talking about?  And who the hell's touching you Hermione?"   

"Oh, shut up Ron and sit down!  I'll tell you everything."  Hermione put on the best poker face she could mask so he wouldn't think anything of what Harry just let out.  She explained to him that Snape had gotten her out the mess she was in last night by telling the Death Eaters that she was giving him information on Harry because she was in love with him.  She made sure to leave out the other bits.

"And they believed you?  C'mon Hermione; who the hell would believe that anyone would fall in love with that arrogant piece of shit?" 

"Well _they_ did, obviously, so now I have to figure out what to do.  I mean what information, am I going to give them?"

"Well, you can just tell them that Harry wears satin knickers and jacks off to the 'Banshees'.  Why the hell do you care?  You're back aren't you?  You don't have to tell them anything, just tell them to kiss my arse."

"What about Snape's cover, Ron?  They'll know he lied and, well who knows what they'll do to him if they found out he's been betraying them the entire time.  The Dark Lord would kill him."

"Are you kidding me?  If that's what's going to happen, then what the hell are you waiting for? 

Ron had barely finished his sentence when Hermione smacked him flat across the face.  "I don't care what your feelings are towards Snape," she hissed, "but he saved my life, and I'm going to do this for him whether you," she looked at Ron and then to Harry, "or you are going to help me or not."  

A flushed Ron with his hand still rubbed over his face, simply snorted before he looked shamelessly away.  The three of them were quiet for a few minutes before Ginny joined them.

"Why the glum faces," she said plopping down in the arm of Harry's chair.  She leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips.  

Ron curled his lip in disgust as Harry slapped Ginny's hand away when she tried to run it through his messy hair.  Ginny glared at him and smacked him across the head before she got up to leave.  Harry was too busy avoiding Ron's eyes to notice.  

"I already know about you and Ginny, Harry, so you can stop pretending like I'm the idiot you all take me for.  Besides, I'm perfectly okay with it," he said with a calm, cool smile on his face..  

"So, if there's anything you want to talk about, you can tell me Harry."  

Harry stared intently at his friend whilst he attempted to figure out if he was faking or not.  He relaxed in his seat when he was convinced that Ron was serious. 

"Ah, that's great Ron.  I knew you'd understand," he said leaning back on his chair.

"It's no problem mate."

"No, I'm serious you don't know what it means to me for me to say that."

"Well, like I said, Harry.  It's not a problem."  Ron was getting slightly disconcerted with Harry.  He did not want to get into the subject of his relationship with Ginny.

"I mean all this sneaking around was really getting on my bloody nerves."

"Harry."

"Oh, and Ginny; I've been dying to talk to someone about this."  Harry lowered his voice so no one else heard him.  "See, she does this thing when we're having sex right, and it really--"

"Ah, shit, no, no, no, no, no, no, Damn it.  What the hell do you think you're doing mate?"  Ron was trying to drown out the information Harry had just let out.

"But you just said--"

"I know what I said, but I don't want to hear about you shagging my – aaaaaah!  No, no, no!"  Ron shook his head when the image of his innocent, naked sister under Harry's bare naked, gaunt, and undernourished body doing the – "Aah fuck!  I don't want to hear this," he said putting his fingers in his ears.  

Ron stood up to leave but not before slapping Harry behind the head for the revolting image and information of him and his sister. 

Hermione who had followed after Ginny came back to talk to Harry when it hit her that she had forgotten to tell him about the paper.

"Harry, there's something I forgot to tell you."  

"You're not going to hit me, are you?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his head.  

Hermione threw Harry the newspaper she had read earlier and caught it.  After a few minutes of silent reading, he quickly looked up terrified. 

"Tell me this isn't Sirius, Hermione!  "Tell me it isn't him!" he said.  Fear was evident in his shaken voice. 

"I was hoping you'd say that," Hermione replied.  Harry looked incredulously at her and opened his mouth before she stopped him and explained: "it's not Sirius, Harry, I was only hoping that you would think it was him so that when I tell you who it is, it wouldn't hurt as bad.  It's Pettigrew.  

Ron who had been sipping on the leftover butterbeer Neville handed to him earlier spit it all over Harry's shirt when he heard what Hermione had said.  He was a few feet away from them and quickly made his way back when he overheard them.  

Harry, whose jaw had dropped as far down as it could, was in disbelief.  

"I heard Snape telling Dumbledore last night that Nott had told him Peter had been found with his head skewered near the forest.  He didn't know anything else about it, but he thought they'd have something in the paper about it.  But it looks like they don't even know who it is.  Pettigrew's face was so messed up they might not ever find out that it's him.  They don't even know where the body is."  

Ron looked as if he was going to puke.  Harry who realized that with Peter killed there was no way Sirius was going to be proven innocent, unless of course by some miracle, Peter would come back to life.

"Well, I'm fine with that," Harry spat viciously, the anger penetrating in his veins.  "The bastard finally got what he deserved.  I only wished I was there to see his face."

"There's something else Harry.  I heard Snape tell Dumbledore that Nott was angry it wasn't him who killed Peter.  I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but you deserve to know it.    

"But, what do you mean?  Why would he want him dead?  I thought they were on the same side?"

"That's what I thought.  But, I don't know Harry.  It's all very confusing.  Snape said he was missing or hiding but I don't know from whom.  I have a feeling Dumbledore knows why but he wouldn't say last night.  
Harry got up from his seat and tucked the paper under his underarm.  "I'm going to write Sirius -- Ron you coming?  Ron?"

Ron had been sitting completely still in his arm chair staring across the room as if he were lost in his thoughts.  

"RON!"  Ron looked up and cleared his voice before turning to Hermione and Harry.  

"You know, there's something really weird going on with those two," he said suspiciously.  Harry and Hermione were looking towards the area in the room Ron was fingering at.  They saw Parvati and Lavender sitting close together in at the foot of the stairs alone, and talking in a very private conversation.

"What are you talking about, Ron?" Hermione asked.  

"I mean they've been doing that for a while now."

"You aren't making any sense," Harry said.  "Those two are always together."

"Yeah, but they're never quite like that."  Ron stared quietly at the pair and then shook his head and dismissed the topic before getting up to leave for the owlery with Harry.  

Meanwhile, Hermione went to her private quarters to shower and take a quick nap before dinner.  

When Hermione woke up, she noticed that she had nearly slept through the entire night.  She got up quickly and saw that it was 11:46. 

"Damn it!  I missed dinner," she mumbled to herself.  She put her head back down on her pillow and noticed that her stomach had made a rumbling sound in agreement.  'I wonder why Harry and Ron didn't wake me up', she thought.  

Feeling queasy, she sat up and straightened her spaghetti strap when she remembered that she was supposed to meet Snape after dinner.  

"Shit!  How the hell could I have forgotten?  This is just great," she said, throwing her slightly damped, tangled hair into a loose bun.  "One more thing he can throw in my face," she mumbled again.  Hermione threw her slippers on and pulled her night cloak around her before going down to the dungeons to check if Snape was still, hopefully, awake.

Hermione noticed a bit of light flickering from beneath the doors as she arrived at Snape's dungeon.  She began to feel squeamish and slightly nervous.  

"What the hell is wrong with you?"  She steadied herself when she got to the door and knocked hard enough for Snape to hear her.  She felt nervous all of a sudden. "But this is normal," she said to herself.  "I mean the man's a beast.  Who wouldn't feel tensed.  

Hermione, feeling a bit disconcerted, when no one answered her knock, thought that maybe he was not there.  She waited patiently for a reply, and was caught off guard when seconds later she was startled by the door Snape had flung open with surprising force. 

With malicious eyes, and a sneer that would've scared a goblin, Snape looked ready to kill.

She was turned on.

___________________________


	8. Dungeons After Dark

_Chapter Eight_  
  
Dungeons After Dark  
  
  
  
A stark figure stood within the vastness of large Dungeon doors.  His inured draconian expression was almost intrinsic, and the glaring light behind him, sharply delineating his daunting stance seemed but a faint flicker against his ascetic stature. Snape's steely persona seemed charismatic to the atmosphere growing dark by the second to suit his facade. 

Hermione was startled by the large oak doors that were flung open by the menacing Potion's Master, was intrigued by his bleak presence.  He looked as if he had been interrupted in the middle of something very important. 

Snape glared at the intrusive student before him and waited for an explanation before he lashed out at her.   
  
Hermione noticed Snape, who she had barely ever seen in anything other than the traditional school robes, was dressed in black cotton slacks and a white spread collared dress shirt unbuttoned down to his collarbone. His shirt, slightly ruffled, and the sleeves, rolled up just below his elbows, suited his tousled hair.  She had never seen him look so casual; if only he didn't look so constipated.    
  
"Am I going to stand here all night watching you drool over my untailored attire, Miss Granger, or are you going to tell me why you interrupted a very important meeting?" he snarled.  
  
Hermione quickly snapped backed to reality only to find herself speechless before an angry Professor.   
  
"Well?" he said almost serenely with an arched eyebrow.  He was anxious to know why the student he had known for over six years, who never had nothing to say, was standing outside his potions dungeon in the middle of the night, speechless.  
  
"I'm sorry to interrupt you Professor, but I thought that I'd let you know that I took a nap earlier and I just woke up, realizing of course, that I had missed our meeting after dinner."  
  
Snape stared at her impassively, and she waited anxiously as to what cruel, spiteful remark he was going to throw in her face when she noticed that he simply exhaled lightly and relaxed himself. 

"Well, we can meet tomorrow night after dinner, unless of course you go nodding off again.  Then we'll have to postpone it for the following night," he said with the least hint of sarcasm, or so she thought.  
  
"Did that not occur to you Miss Granger?"  
  
"Well, yes, but I thought I'd come down anyways and check if you were still here."  
  
"Ah yes," he interrupted brusquely.  "Being as I'm the loner Potions Master with no social life, I have nothing better to do than skulk around in my dungeon twenty four hours a day brewing potions to make all your lives more convenient," he said, his anger quickly accelerating.  
  
Hermione flushed with embarrassment.  It seemed that everything she said was an insult to his very being, and yet remaining speechless was even more insolent.  
  
"You know for once, Professor," she said courageously, "I would actually appreciate it if you'd let me finish a sentence."  
  
"And for once, Miss Granger," he countered heatedly, "I would appreciate it if you would not poke your face everywhere I turn.  And seeing as you were the one who showed up, and still outside my door, I suppose it would be folly for me to show you the way out," he hissed sarcastically before slamming the door in her face.  
  
Hermione was about to storm back to her quarters heated, when she remembered that it was he who asked her to come down in the first place, even though she had been late. Determined to give that bastard a piece of her mind, Hermione decided she was not going to leave until she straightened things out.  She knocked on the doors again and was only too surprised when they were opened by someone else.   
  
Hermione, wide-eyed and shocked at seeing her Astronomy Professor appear suddenly, swallowed hard and stood back aghast.   
  
"Professor, I'm sorry, I had no idea you were here."  
  
"Oh, it's fine Miss Granger.  Professor Snape and I were just having a few…last minute discussions on some personal matters."   
  
Isabella Sinistra was by far the most beautiful woman Hermione had ever seen in her life, and she didn't feel that way because she strongly stood by every opinion she made, but because Professor Sinistra was one of the most beautiful women most people have ever seen.  She had raven black hair and pale white complexion.  She had almost a gothic look to her.  Hermione always admired her for her dark beauty, which suited her surreptitious persona.  She waltzed with an air of class and sophistication-- her head never down, and her eyes never tamed.  Hermione would have thought her to be the female version of Snape had she not known her.  
  
Hermione and Isabella stood silently for a moment before the Professor excused herself. "I'll be going now Miss Granger, and you can go on in.  Professor Snape is ready to brew the potion you need."  Hermione, at first looked puzzled, till it hit her that it was just an excuse Snape had probably given Sinistra, explaining her coming to his dungeons in the middle of the night.  
  
"Yes, thank you Professor.  And again, I'm very sorry I interrupted your meeting."  
  
Isabella smiled and lingered for a moment before leaving.  Before she walked away, Snape showed up and pushed Hermione inside the classroom and told her to wait for him inside. 

He shut the door behind him. 

Hermione could hear their faint whispers outside the closed doors, though it was too low to be intelligible.  She couldn't help but feel that what she interrupted was more than just a meeting. What kind of meeting though, she wanted to know. 

Hermione's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the large doors opening behind her.  Snape walked in and stood before her in an unperturbed stance with his hands tucked in his pockets.  He looked quietly down at her, and Hermione couldn't help but think that he looked really attractive in his white collared shirt.  She quickly filed that thought away and beat herself up inside for the revolting thought.   
  
"Sit down Miss Granger," he said as plainly as the expression on his face.  
  
Instantly Hermione obeyed and sat down on one of the desks. 

Snape, taking his sweet time, walked behind his desk and sat down shuffling a few parchments here and there.  After a while he stood and walked over to the far left corner where he gathered various tubes and ingredients lying around and stowed it away behind the cupboard overhead.

Hermione watched him intently and was unconsciously drawn in by the gracefulness of his movements. 

He glided forward with such instinctive unity of movement that it seemed gracefully articulate.  And his hands, she noticed more than anything else: thin, long, deft fingers moving in such unthinking accordance, it seemed harmonious to her prying eyes. 

'How can something so beautiful belong to someone so dark and empty', she thought to herself?  Perhaps there was more to him, she thought.  Despite the inured expressions this man masked everyday, she could not help but feel rapt by his quick tongue and dark cold eyes.  It intrigued her most pleasantly, that she blushed at the very thought.   
  
"Miss Granger!"  

Hermione started and looked up to see Snape a few desks away from her. 

"We need to discuss a few things and you need to listen very carefully, because both our lives are at stake here.  One wrong move and it cold cost you your life."  
  
"Well, I'm glad to see that you're concerned about me, Professor," she taunted.  
  
"I'm only making sure I'm not held responsible for your death, shall it ever occur.  So, pay attention because I don't have time for small talk," he snapped. 

Snape looked at her intently before carrying on.  "Now as much as I hate to say this, I will say it none the less. My life depends on you, and your every move.  You are being watched from the moment you arrived at that party until only Merlin knows when. Now, because of the new twist you've added to my cover," he said condescendingly, "I will give you instructions on what to say, how to act, where to go, what to do, and I control your every move for as long as we continue this charade.  In other words, you will not so much as breathe without my permission, is that clear?"  

Before Hermione could even respond, he cut her off and continued on with his sneer still in place. 

"Now despite how much we loathe each other, we need to put our differences aside and--"  
  
Hermione shot her head up at this.  "Wait! Who said I loathed you," she interrupted.  
  
Snape eyed her warily and she stared back comprehensively and waited for his reply. 

"Miss Granger, do not sit here and pretend that you rather enjoy being here with me in the middle of the night discussing your breathing patterns more than you would enjoy snogging the caretaker."  
  
"No, I don't," she replied disconcertedly, realizing for the first time just how much her Potions Master must have really hated her.  "But why on earth would you think such a think.  I just can't stand you, is all, and that's because you're always lashing out at me, and to tell you the truth I have no idea why you do that either.  I've always respected your intellect, and admired your mental power, despite your spiteful attempts at making everyone's life around you a living hell." 

Hermione stared at the Professor, and waited for his usual ruthless retaliation, so when none came yet, she pushed it some more. "Well Professor? Why are you always picking on me", she asked composedly.   
  
"Don't flatter yourself, Miss Granger, you're not the only one I pick on," he said as he walked back to his desk.  "Now, as flattered as I am of your little speech, I would rather appreciate it if you would keep your opinions to yourself."  
  
"Why do you have to be so bloody complicated," she snapped, angry that his whole being was consisted of nothing more than dark sarcasm.  

Severus walked closer to her and slammed his hand on the desk.  Hermione flinched.   
  
"Just because you know now that my life depends on your mood, does not give you the bloody privilege to say whatever the hell you want to me." Severus leaned in closer so his face was only an inch away from hers.  He whispered softly yet deadly enough to make her hair stand on end.  "You know, if I didn't know better, it would seem that you have a problem controlling what comes out of that mouth, Miss Granger.  I would watch what I say, if I were you.  You wouldn't want me as your enemy."  
  
"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Professor," she goaded.  "Not everyone wants to be your enemy."  She could not resist throwing it in his face.  
  


Hermione stared deep into his eyes, never deigning to look away.  

He was so close that she could feel his breath against her face.

  
For a moment, they remained still, and speechless. Their breaths thrashed against each other in a fusing wisp, and he could smell her cool, lightly heated breath against his face.  It gave him the most unusual sensation.  

Severus found himself in such an awkward situation that he did not quite know how to react to it.  This angered him for some reason. 

'Citrus', he thought when her scent invaded his senses.

  
Hermione stirred and turned towards the door, snapping him to.  "When you're ready to grow up, Professor, let me know, because I'm not going to sit around and listen to you dart dirty words towards me with that foul mouth of yours," she said rather bravely.  
  
Snape grabbed hold of her cloak before she walked away and pulled her closer to him.  He did not intend for her to be so close but she was positioned just below his face.  He looked at her and wondered how the hell he got himself into this mess, yet he couldn't help but feel that she was right.  If he were to reach some sort of agreement with her, it would increase their chances of getting through this ordeal alive and unscathed, physically or emotionally.  
  
She stared up at him and he looked down on her.  He bit back his tongue before apologizing.  "Miss Granger--  
  
"—Stay!"   
  
His apology was as simple as he had said it.   
  
'Stay?' she repeated in her head.  That was probably the worst thing anyone has ever said to her to get her to stay.  But she dismissed it because he was, after all, Snape, and decided to accept his apology and get on with more important matters.   
  
Hermione sat down in the front seat and Severus atop his desk. 

"Before we begin, I have a few questions, and I expect them to be answered.  If I'm going to pull this off, and fool everyone, I need to be aware of all the facts in case I let something slip and blow our covers."  
  
"What do you want to know?"  
  
"Everything.  I want to know about these parchments. What they are and what it's for.  I also want to know about Pettigrew, and why he was killed. Don't leave anything out, including the Dark Lord's disappearance, so when you're ready I'm all ears."  
  
Snape looked at her hesitantly before agreeing that she was probably right.  Trust her to throw it all out there in one go, he thought.   
  
"About three and a half months ago," he began, "all the Death Eaters received anonymous invitations by floo for a private party at our usual meeting place.  When we all arrived there the following night, we had discovered that the Dark Lord wasn't there and no one had any idea who set the meeting up.  They thought it was a set-up by the Order and everyone quickly panicked.  I assured them that the Headmaster would have said something if he had planned a secret attack on the Death Eaters. So, later that night, we were all surprised when an envelope addressed to Lucius Malfoy apparated out of thin air.  

"After he read it, he did not explain or tell anyone what the letter said, except that the Dark Lord had come up with a plan that would ensure his victory against the Headmaster, with or without Potter.  He then said that we would continue to receive invitations to more meetings.  And at each meeting, one of the Death Eater's would receive a parchment.  We never know who it is beforehand or when the next meeting is. All we know is that there are six parchments in all and three of them have already been given out.  

"Lucius Malfoy received the first.  Ruloph Macnair received the second and Demitri Dolohov received the third last night. After reading each parchment they immediately threw it in the hearth, as you may have noticed from the smell of burnt parchment when you arrived last night.  They said nothing more of the letter and no one was to ask of the contents of these parchments."  
  
"Do you have any idea what was on those parchments?" Hermione asked. 

Snape stood up from the desk and walked around to his seat and pulled something from the drawers. He walked back to her and tossed her a few newspaper clippings of the Daily Prophet.  She noticed some were nearly four months old.  She looked through each one thoroughly and began to understand where the Professor was talking about.   
  
"I believe those disappearances and events had something to do with what was on those parchments, except I can not prove it.  My theories are no good to anyone, but the Headmaster agrees with me."  
  
Hermione went through each clipping thoroughly in hopes of catching something Snape might have missed. One clipping was of a wizard who lived as a muggle and died when he accidentally drove his car off a bridge.  The others were of break-ins at the Ministry lab, homes, kidnappings, some minor accidents, and deaths.  
  
As you already know, I suspect that Lucius Malfoy knows when the Order meets.  I also believe that he has something else up his sleeve.  But that is not for you to worry about."   
  
Hermione sitting at the edge of her seat was on an unusual high, hyped from the valuable information entrusted to her.   
  
"Pettigrew is another story. About five months ago we were told that he betrayed the Dark Lord and gave information on him and the Death Eaters to someone at the Ministry.  We were given specific orders to find him and kill him.  After telling the Headmaster this, he wanted me to find Pettigrew and bring him to Hogwarts.  Dumbledore was anxious as to know why Pettigrew betrayed the Dark Lord, but unfortunately for our side, someone had found him first. We still don't know who killed him, but I've sent Moody and Higgs to Hogervow to investigate."  
  
"Wait!  Do you mean Terry Higgs, as in Slytherin seeker during Harry's first year on the Quidditch team," Hermione interrupted.  
  
"Not that that is of any importance in our discussion," Snape replied bitterly, "but yes Miss Granger, it is. Higgs joined shortly after Wood joined the Order a year ago. Now, if you're through interrupting me, I want to get this over with so we can return to our quarters, and get some rest".  
  
Hermione feeling a bit flushed simply nodded and motioned for him to continue. "Like I was saying, Moody and Higgs are over at the Hogervow village as we speak looking for anything that could lead us to Pettigrew's murderer. The Order has been working tirelessly for months to formulate a plan to counter the Dark Lord's expected attack.  But we don't know when that would be exactly. No one, not even his followers know of his whereabouts, so you're lucky, Miss Granger, that he wasn't there when you arrived last night. He would have seen right through my lies, though I have no doubt that he has somehow gotten word of your arrival and our feigned relationship."  

Snape stopped and looked at the alert student before him.  She reminded him of how she looked when she sat in his class during discussions.  He was quite grateful, though he never admitted it, that it was she he had ended getting stranded with, other than someone else, like Parkinson for one or the Weasley girl.  Merlin knows that would have been one embarrassing ordeal, he thought before continuing.  

"I know the Dark Lord has appointed someone his secret keeper.  Whoever it is, that person is the only one right now who knows of his whereabouts.  I also believe that he is also the one setting up the meetings and sending the parchments over."

"Do you have any idea who it might be?"

"No.  It's too early to tell."  
  
Hermione watched him intently as he went on to explain the small details of the secret meetings the Death Eaters had.  

"I believe that that is all you need to know for now on this matter, Miss Granger, unless you have any other questions."    
  
Hermione cleared her throat and nodded in reply. "Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

"What?" Severus said resignedly.  

"What are we going to do with Malfoy?  I assume his father will notify him soon and tell him to keep an eye on us and report back to him immediately."   
  
"Yes, I haven't forgotten about Mr. Malfoy, but we can't spring it out on him, yet.  It'll be too obvious and we have to be subtle.  When I figure something out, I'll let you know."  
  
"Well, I think we should come up with a situation now.  Something where it's just the three of us alone, say like in detention.  That would be perfect for us to sort of fool him into believing there's something going on without being too obvious Professor."  
  
Snape looked at her intently and pondered for a moment on the significance of this idea.  He knew detention was the universal technique for dirty-scheming between students and their teachers.  Merlin knows how hackneyed that method was, but it was, for the moment, their only option.  It was also probably their best bet at getting Malfoy alone with them without rousing any suspicions.  He asked her to go on.   
  
"See, if I know Malfoy, he won't need an invitation to pick on me.  Tomorrow, I'm almost sure that he'll have something immature and idiotic to say about my hair or my being Muggle and so forth.  So, all I have to do this time is defend myself and get us in detention.  It's quite easy, you see."   
  
"Defend yourself?  I don't know where you've been for the past six years, Miss Granger, but have you ever seen me give Mr. Malfoy detention, once in all his years here," he said with a hint of iniquity laced in his voice.  He was quite happy to find a flaw in her plan, despite his decision to use it.  
  
"Well, then we'll just have to wait till we have double transfiguration on Wednesday for Professor McGonagall to put us in detention.  We probably won't need to inform her, because unlike you, she will put him in detention.   
  
"Fine, he snapped.  "Expect detention on Wednesday with me, although I will have to notify McGonagall anyways, because you have forgotten to remember that there are various numbers of detentions.  You might not be lucky enough as to receive one that day with me," he said with a smile spread across his gaunt face.  
  
'Damn him', she cursed after her obvious struggle in some equality with the bastard.    
  
"Now if you've no other queries, we have other matters to discuss," he said impatiently, anxious to get back to his quarters.  
  
"Actually, Professor, I do have one more question." 

"What is it now?"  
  
"Well, I noticed that you forgot to tell me about the potion."  
  
"What potion?" he asked, genuinely confused.  
  
"The one the Headmaster was talking about last night.  The one you needed the aconite for.  What potion is that?"  
  
"That, Miss Granger is between the Headmaster and me and does not, in any way, concern you."  
  
"And what of Professor Sinistra?" she pushed her luck.  "What about her?"  
  
"That also is none of your business," he snapped, the anger permeated back into his voice.  
  
Hermione knew that her last two questions had angered Snape, so she left it at that and continued their discussions for the next two hours before they both realized that it had gotten really late.

Snape forced Hermione to save whatever other questions she had for later.  He sent her to get some rest, feeling relieved himself that she would finally leave his dungeons.    
  
"I'll see you tomorrow, then," she said as she walked towards the door.  But before she left, she could not resist turning around and giving Severus one last comment she was sure would have earned her a smack in the face.   
  
"Professor."  
  
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Miss Granger, what is it now?" he said exhaustedly.  
  
"I just thought I'd let you know that you look much better in white, than in your usual black garb."  A chagrined smile flitted across her face when she saw the anger plastered all over his.  She left before he had the chance to lash out.  She grinned all the way back to her room.  She never knew how much fun it was to anger him and know that he could not do much about it.  

She almost thought it cute.  
________________________  
  
  
  



	9. The Accomplice

Chapter Nine

_The Accomplice_

The week passed by quickly with all the usual happenings. Monday went by without a hitch, except when Crabbe and Goyle cornered Neville on his way to the loo. They shoved him in the girl's restroom, where he was hit by numerous hexes that ended him up at the infirmary.  He was out cold for a few hours.  Hermione noticed Malfoy still had not found out about the incident Saturday night, which was a definite plus sign on her behalf.   
  
She had been meeting up every night with Snape for the entire week, since Sunday night.  She would sneak down at about midnight every night, and Snape, after a few sarcastic comments and disdainful expressions, would let her in. 

They would talk all night, and discuss Death Eaters and possible questions they might ask her.  He informed her on how she should behave around them.  They conferred any news that showed up in the Daily Prophet or bits they might have picked up elsewhere with each other.  They also talked about complex Potions and the various effects they had if brewed a second too early, or an ingredient too late, and suchlike.

"So an ocular potion that contains too much dwayberry wouldn't do any more damage to the eyes than if I had poured a whole ounce of fluxweed in there?"

"Dilation of the pupils is an effect, belladonna will always have on the eyes.  This does not mean that it is its only effect.  You forget, Miss Granger that Hyoscyamine is a poisonous crystalline alkaloid.  Too much Atropine will not only damage the eyes but poison you as well.

"Ah, right.  I forgot about that."

"What is there to forget?   These two belladonna alkaloids are what make this plant so valuable: It's used as a mydriatic, anodyne, and if taken internally—a narcotic, sedative, and diuretic.  This is a very valuable plant if not for its many uses then for its rarity.  It's hard to find now days and you should have learned all this by now.

  
"But we don't cover all that in our lessons," Hermione exclaimed half disappointed and half awed.  She thought her Potions Master's knowledge only went so far as Potions-making and the various ingredients it required.  She had no idea he was so learned in the chemical properties of the plants and its effects.  

"Of course, we don't cover it in the lessons.  It would take weeks just to cover the basics and with students like Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley, I wouldn't count on any of them to remember the lesson after they leave my class."

"But this is valuable information for those who want to become Potions Master or Mistress, or even nurses--

"Miss Granger, I have already written up a study-plan to cover this field of information.  The Ministry does not approve of it.  It would take up too much time and leave little for other 'important' lessons that the students should be learning."

"That's not fair," Hermione whispered.

"And you've only just figured that out.  Life isn't fair, Miss Granger.  Nothing ever is.  But for those who are lucky, well, we learn to deal with it, and get on with our lives."

Hermione could not believe what she was hearing.  Snape, giving her his opinion on life?  This was certainly a shock for her.  She stared at him for a moment to see if he realized what he had just let out.

Snape looked up to catch her scrutinizing him, but he did not seem to care.  They both remained silent for a moment, before either spoke again.

"Can, I ask you something?"

"Would it make a difference if I said, no?"

"No."

"Then ask away."

"How do you know so much about Chemistry?  Hyoscyamine—I recognize this as a Muggle term."

"Just because it is a Muggle-term does not mean that the Belladonna plants we have in our Wizarding world excludes the property."

"Well, yes I realize that--

 "We have our own terms for these Chemical properties.  I took the liberty to learn both the Muggle and Wizarding-terms.  It is very useful when you depend on Muggle pharmacies for some of them."

"I didn't know you ordered from the Muggle world as well."

"It's useful when are very own supplies are scarce."

  It seemed as if Severus and Hermione were old colleagues from the depth in which they dove into their discussions: Politics, potions, muggles, differences between the wizarding governments and the muggles, and so forth.  Amazingly they got along without much cursing or hexing when their conversations were more complex than Quidditch, the school poltergeist, or the lake squid.  Hermione's respect for the Potions Master grew immensely as she took advantage of the opportunity to pick at his brain. She loved the way his mind worked and it seemed, sometimes that she kept going down to his dungeons every night to make love to his mind rather than for her usual instructions. 

They never admitted it out loud, but they were getting along just fine.  
  
  
Come Wednesday morning, Snape called Hermione to stay after class.  He told her that he had received the invitation to Lucius' Ball earlier that morning. 

"Now, I need you to come back tonight so we can discuss your instructions for the ball."  
  
"What do you mean, 'instructions for the ball'?"  
  
"I mean you are going to escort me to the ball Friday night or questions will be raised about your absence."  
  
"But tonight, Professor, it's my detention with Malfoy."  
  
"Yes, I haven't forgotten Miss Granger.  You'll work out your punishment and before you two leave, spill your potion and I'll ask you to stay behind to clean it up. That should be subtle enough to get the point across."  
  
Hermione thought about it for a while before agreeing that it was a pretty good plan, though not out loud. All she needed to do now was wait for double Transfiguration after lunch with the Slytherins, for Malfoy to push her buttons, and then cause the scene she's waited six years to do.  
  
  
During class Hermione waited and expected Malfoy to pick on her as usual, but for some odd reason he did not look at her throughout the whole class.   
  
She did not think it wise to look at him, because she wouldn't normally sneak glances towards him during class.  It puzzled her as to why today of all days when she needed him to be the asshole he usually was, he was completely mute. So she purposely raised her hand to every question McGonagall asked – which was a bit out of the ordinary, because she had mellowed out a bit in her last years at school.  She only answered questions no one else knew the answers to. She had hoped her annoying habit would set Malfoy off, but nothing she did seemed to get his attention.   
  
"What the hell is he doing," she mumbled to herself. 

She had a few minutes left to class to get him to pick on her before she ran out of ideas, but she failed miserably. 

The bell rang and instantly she thought of what Snape would say to her failed attempt at such a simple task.  She was disappointed in herself and started panicking at the idea of his reaction when she told him she could not even make Malfoy look at her.  

While on her way out, Hermione was surprised by a lean figure that bumped into her and brushed her side gently, forcing her to the side of the wall just outside class. Hermione, staring back at a grinning Malfoy, was pinned between his hands and the brick wall.   
  
"What do you want?"  
  
Malfoy's genuinely demonic smile suited his flaxen hair which was partially obscuring his face.  He looked at her with an unusual gleam in his eyes as he brushed his lips against the side of her hair and whispered in her ear.  
  
"You know, I heard the funniest thing today Granger."  
  
"Really?" she said coolly, not deigning to be phased by his attempts to intimidate her.  
  
"Yeah, see father told me you were giving Snape information on a certain someone in exchange to get banged up against the dungeon walls every night.  Is that right?  Are you betraying Potter to screw the Potions Master, Granger?"   
  
"And how is that any of your business, Malfoy?"  
  
"Well, you see, that's why I told father that there's no way in hell you'd even screw Snape let alone fall in love with him.  So he made it my business to find out what you're really up to.  Tell me!  What are you playing at?  I mean it doesn't take a Longbottom to see that you and the Professor despise each other."  
  
"Yes, that's right," she whispered back into his ear.  "Because, if I was to start drooling all over Severus in front of the entire school, Harry and Ron would not suspect a thing, right?  I mean how else am I supposed to fool them that I'm not the slut your father thinks I am.  And how then would Daddy receive the valuable information on Harry that I've been giving Severus for the past three months?"  
  
Malfoy was surprised that she had referred to the Potions Master on a first name basis.  But before he could respond, he was yanked from the back by someone with extreme force that he flew across the hallway colliding with the opposite wall.  Ron had walked out of class with Neville to see Hermione pinned by Malfoy and it set the redhead off instantly.   
  
"Get the hell off her, you piece of shit." 

Crabbe, who came up behind him, pulled his head back in a headlock.  Neville jumped on top of him and started pounding his head with his fat fists before he socked him in the ribs. Goyle ran right in to them with full force and tackled them down in hopes Neville would fly off Goyle, which he did unfortunately on Malfoy who got up and kicked him in the shins. Neville bellowed out loud and Ron slammed Malfoy into the wall from behind nearly cracking his skull. The five of them were entangled in a fistfight that would've ended up nasty if McGonagall hadn't run out of her classroom.  
  
"What on earth is going on here?  Stop it!  Stop it this instant!  The boys were so enraged with each other that none of them paid any heed to McGonagall, until Snape came. 

Snape, who heard the commotion from down the hall on his way to his office, came over to see what was going on.  And seeing Hermione at the corner, watching the tangled knot, knew right away what had happened. 

He clasped his hand tightly behind Ron's cloak and with amazing force lifted him off his feet and set him down on his side.  He then bent over to pick Malfoy off the hard floor, who was seconds away from being sat on by a large enraged Neville.  

Hermione watched Snape break up the fight and couldn't fight the urge of feeling quite turned on by his physical strength.  
  
"I HAVE NEVER, EVER, SEEN SUCH A DESPICABLE DISPLAY IN MY LIFE," a vexed McGonagall fumed.  Her face nearly gave off steam from her rage.  "After I am through with the five of you, you are going to wish you had considered Durmstrang before setting foot in this school, which I will remind you is a learning institution for students, not a wrestling ring for hounds," she hissed.   
  
"I'm afraid I have to agree with you, Professor," Snape added.  "Of all the idiotic things to do in your last year here, you've decided to show the entire underclassmen how pathetically inane you all are."   
  
"I am not even going to ask what happened," McGonagall cut in, "because nothing, and I mean nothing can excuse your behaviors.  Now, I don't know whether I should suspend the five of you, or call your parents in.  And I'm seriously considering both. So until Professor Snape and I decide your fates, you will serve detention with Filch tonight and the rest of the week.  Is that understood?"  
  
Neville and Ron nodded while the other three simply glared back at the raging Professor.  

McGonagall zoomed forward in a flash and grabbed the three of them by their cloaks so quickly that it startled them.  "IS THAT UNDERSTOOD, I SAID?" They quickly nodded and she let go of them, shaking her head in disgust.  
  
"If I may Professor," Snape interrupted.  "I think I'll take over their detention for tonight in my dungeons," he said indignantly.

  
"Fine, but I want them punished.  Extremely!"  
  
If I could hang them by their feet and feed them to the thestrals, I would.  But, unfortunately, they're still students."

The boys stood incredulously before Snape as if they had just been caught with their pants down.

"Well then, I'll see the six of you in my dungeons tonight and I expect all of you to be there," Snape continued.  
  
"Wait!" said Ron, making his first contribution to the lecture.  What do you mean six?" he inquired.  
  
"I mean six as in you, Mr. Malfoy, Longbottom, Crabbe, Goyle, and Miss Granger.  Can you not count, Mr. Weasley?"  
  
"But she didn't--"  
  
"Unless you want to serve detention with me—alone, Mr. Weasley for the next month, you will hold your tongue and hope I don't dismiss the others, and have you serve out their detentions tonight, alone."  
  
Ron's face was a plump cherry, ready to explode, but he reluctantly held his tongue and refrained from getting himself into any more trouble.  
  
"Good. Now get out of here, before I extend your detentions to Christmas."  
  
The crowd dissolved quickly and everyone there turned to leave for their classes. 

Draco noticed that Snape had walked up to Hermione and whispered something in her ear. And Severus, who did this intentionally, hoping Malfoy would see him, wasn't aware that Ron, fuming at the corner of the hall, had seen it also.

  
________________

The crowded hall emptied out quickly after the sudden brawl when Snape showed up. 

Snape quite enjoyed the way his students quivered at the very sight of him.  The terror that swept quickly across their faces when his very name was uttered or thought was something he could not help but feel proud of. 

His cold presence was more than a reason to run for it, and it was an advantage in situations such as this.  The students had left [ran] for their classes, and McGonagall, muttering mutely to herself, went back into her classroom.  

Snape walked up to Hermione and whispered softly into her ear.  
  
"Meet me in my office, now!"   
  
Severus knew that Malfoy, standing down the hall, pretending like he was not there, had seen his close brush with Miss Granger.  Snape hoped it would add to his suspicions.  But Ron, standing just down the opposite hall, fuming feverishly at the Potions Master, had also seen the sick display. 

Whether Snape had sneered vile threats or scornful comments into Hermione's ear, it did not matter much to him.  The simple thought of that sarcastic fuck leaning into Hermione like that was too intimate to be ignored.  Ron's suspicions were raised as well.   
  
  
Harry, who had left Transfiguration early on a trip to the loo, came back to an empty class to collect his supplies.  He could not believe that Ron and Hermione had not waited for him.  His trip to the restroom had delayed him a lot longer than he had expected: it was Hot Tamale Wednesday. 

Harry left the class and headed straight for Astronomy, which he had next and was already late for about six minutes.  When Harry got there he was surprised again to see that neither Hermione nor Ron was there. 

'What the hell is going on,' he thought.  Harry turned to Neville to ask him if he knew where Ron or Hermione was and was only too surprised to see that his desk was empty as well. 

'What the fuck?'  Harry threw his hand in the air, and Professor Sinistra who had been watching him the entire time raised her elegantly styled eyebrow slightly to the side.   
  
"Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Potter?"  
  
"Yes Professor, I'm not feeling so good and I was wondering if I could go to the restroom please."  Professor Sinistra, who seemed a lot paler than usual, Harry thought, simply nodded in reply.   
  
Harry got up from his desk and left class to wander the lower halls in hopes of bumping into Hermione, Ron, or Neville, only to bump into Peeves, who somehow managed to adjust a broken metal armor to hold up around his plump translucent body, which nearly threw Harry back when he gonged right into it.   
  
"How's it feel like to be a bell?" he cackled.   
  
"Leave me alone, you annoying pest."  
  
"Well, that's not a nice thing to say to a knight, you rug head. When was the last time you combed that thing anyhow?" he teased while floating annoyingly behind Harry who was trying to ignore him.  

While following Harry, Peeves broke out into a ridiculous song while purposefully bumping into him with his metal armor.  
  
"You know it's such a funny coincidence that you're following me, Peeves", Harry interrupted, "seeing as how I'm actually on my way to see the Bloody Baron to discuss some important issues on the school ghosts and a certain POLTERGEIST."  
  
"You lie," the poltergeist spat with just a hint of fear in his voice."  
  
"What do you think is just around the corner Peeves? The entrance to the floor the Bloody Baron's stationed at, you intrusive nut-wraith."  In an instant, Peeves shot straight through the roof and was never seen again by Harry till his sudden encounter with him again the following night.  
  
Harry had thanked all the powers of being that it was a mere coincidence the Bloody Baron was stationed just up ahead.  He started panicking at the very idea that something had happened to his friends when he bumped into Neville.   
  
"You all right Harry?" Neville asked.  Harry found him holding a portable ice pack against his neck.  
  
"Neville, where the hell have you been?  Where's Ron and Hermione?  Did something happen to them?  What's wrong with your neck?  And why the hell are you limping?"  Harry rolled the questions out of his mouth like it was moldy spinach.  
  
"Oh, it's a long story, Harry," said Neville painfully.  "I was up at the infirmary getting patched up by Ol' Mad Pop (they usually called her, when they came filing in with such ridiculous needs for mending) and I have no idea where Ron and Hermione are.  Ron and I got into a fight with Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle after Transfiguration.  We--"  
  
"What?" Harry exclaimed.  What happened?"  
  
"C'mon," said Neville.  "Let's go somewhere we won't get caught. 

Harry and Neville walked around the corner and down two flights of stairs to get to the deserted restroom on the second floor. Thank Godric, Moaning Myrtle wasn't there.  

Neville told Harry what had happened when he and Ron had walked out of class, the fight that broke out, Snape showing up and their detention later on that night.  
  
"That mother fucker," was Harry's response.   "I wonder what he said to Hermione," he said to himself.  "So you all got detention tonight with Snape?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"I need to find Ron," Harry said as he walked out the restroom.   
____  
  
  
  


Hermione went to see Snape after he had practically demanded her to after the fight broke up.  She saw him standing behind his desk with papers in his hands, reading quietly to himself when she walked into his office.  He did not even bother to look up when she walked in. She stood before him and stared at him, purposely ignoring her presence. She thought about clearing her throat to let him know she was there, but decided against it. 

'I'm tired of this shit,' she thought angrily to herself.  He knew she was there and she was not going to put up with his attitude. He told her to meet him in his office, and she did, yet here they were, back at square one again: he pretended she wasn't there while she waited eagerly for some signs of life from the ignorant piece of shit.  So she stood there and watched him read to himself.   
  
Hermione remained still for a moment.  At first, she simply stood there and pondered about the unusual silence.  This kept her distracted from the deafening silence that pervaded the room.  When she thought about Snape and his ignoring her, she realized that she had been standing still and quiet for nearly a minute.

    
SLAM!  Hermione slammed her hand down hard on his desk and felt it scream with pain.  She did not let it get to her.  She noticed that it had startled Snape, and in a fleeting instant, she saw a vulnerable look pass quickly across his face before it turned into a menacing one.   
  
"Don't you dare, say a word," she hissed before he had the chance to rip her down.  "I'm fed up with this shit, Professor.  You specifically told me to meet you in your office and now that I'm here, you ignore my very presence as if I did not exist in the first place.  I don't have time to play cat and mouse with you.  It's ridiculous and I will not endure it any longer. For Godric's sake, grow up, damn it."  Hermione's head could have grown horns if she had lashed out a bit longer.  "And have you forgotten, Professor, that I am already ten minutes late to Astronomy?"   
  
Snape, who at first planned on being slightly lenient with the girl, changed his mind quickly.  A reprimand from a student was something he was not going to tolerate.  

  
"Tell me, Miss Granger!  Am I your inferior that you talk to me like a dog?  Who is the professor and who is the student?  Ten points for disrespecting a professor, and I will not be so lenient the next time you insult me.  And did you not specifically say that your plan was to get Malfoy and yourself in detention or were you planning on having an inferno in my dungeons tonight, Miss Granger.  You have not only managed to put one but four additional students in detention tonight because of your lack of consideration and desperate need for attention," he sneered viciously.   
  
"It wasn't my fault, Ron decided he wanted to fling Malfoy across the hall," she spat angrily suppressing the need to scream.  "And nobody asked those two overgrown idiots to back Malfoy up when his tools were of no use," she growled with her hands flat on his desk and her head stretched out across it.    
  
"I will not have everything I have worked hard for, jeopardized in one day because you could not keep your love tangle in control, Miss Granger.  Find Weasley a leash or he'll be following you to the ball Friday night.  If you can't control him, get rid of him!" he demanded in a peremptory tone.  
  
Hermione stared lividly at the Professor, stunned at what he had just demanded her to do. She could not decide if she wanted to scream in his face that he had no right to tell her who she could and could not be with, or if she should just tell him that it was already over.  Either way, he was not going to be happy.  The thought of Ron still being dramatically overprotective of her even after they were broken up would bring up so many problems, and Snape would definitely make sure to point them all out.   
  
"First of all," she said calmly yet still on edge, "you don't have the right to tell me whom I can and can't be with.  And second," her voice faltered as she tried to avoid his eyes (she couldn't believe she was talking about her relationships with the last person on earth she would've thought to). "It's been over Professor-- a few months ago, yet I can't get rid of him. I've known Ron for half my life and he's like family, and I can't see him as anything more," she continued, unaware of the professor's stunned expression, "I mean, Ron and I are still friends and all, but he feels like there's still a chance that--"  
  
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, woman, spare me the details," he hissed.  "I can barely breathe when you're in the room, don't suffocate me with your love confessions for the bloody idiot."  
  
Hermione stared back at Snape and smiled half heartedly not sure if it would set him off or not, but it was more because he had just said that he could not breathe when she was in the room, and she wondered if he meant that in a good way, or, well, the other way.  She was secretly considering the former, though not admitting to it herself.  
  
She stared at him while thinking this, and he, the same, when he realized that he had just told her he could not breathe when she was in the room.  He wondered if she thought that he had meant that in a revolting way, or, well, the other way. He was hoping she had thought the former, though a tiny voice in his head kept whispering: _liar.   
  
Hermione filed the thought away, cleared her throat, and took a seat.  She decided her professor's usual disregard for her was not worth torpedoing empty threats towards him.  She secretly thanked Merlin that Snape had not sacked and bagged her yet and sent her off as donated food for the orphan hippogriffs at the Hogsoot Vet.   
  
"Look; Malfoy cornered me after class today and told me that he knows about us." she said much calmly.  "He doesn't believe it at all.  I guess his father must've told him this morning because he definitely didn't know about it yesterday."  
  
Snape placed the papers he was holding back into the drawers before taking a seat.  "What else did he say?"  
  
"Nothing; just that he told his father it was impossible that the two of us could be…well…you know?"  
  
"No, I don't, Miss Granger," he lied.  He saw her blushing from one ear to the other.  Hermione quickly averted her eyes from his when he said this.  Her innocence was a disturbing, yet an appealing aspect to their current situation though he quite enjoyed meddling with her emotions.  It was probably the only bit of amusement he had lately.   
  
Hermione stopped flushing before turning to the secretly smirking Professor.  
  
"Don't toy with me, Professor.  You know very well what I meant."  _

Severus simply rolled his eyes and told her to go on. 

Hermione started popping her knuckles like she usually did out of habit.  This distracted if not annoyed Severus.  'Merlin, how many annoying habits does this girl have,' he thought.

  
"Malfoy said that his father asked him to find out what we were up to, although it was quite stupid of him to tell me, because now we know.  I mean honestly, where the hell does he get his brains from?"  
  
"Narcissa," Snape replied assertively.  
  
Hermione looked up at Snape and laughed at the way he had spat that out.  "You're joking right?"  
  
Snape curled his lip and raised his brow as if the very comment of him joking was as revolting as saying her name.   
  
"Sorry," Hermione smiled.   
  
"What are we going to do about tonight," he continued.  "How exactly are you planning on pulling this off without raising everyone else's suspicions?"  
  
"Oh, I don't know," she shrugged.  "But I'm sure I'll think of something, Professor." 

Snape looked at her suspiciously and remembered what had happened the last time she had said that.  
  
_____  
  
  



	10. Cruel Intentions

_Chapter Ten                             
  
_Cruel Intentions  
  
  
  
  
  
   
Hermione, Ron, and, Harry did not meet up until dinner that night.  Harry had searched high and low for Ron.  He had no luck whatsoever. And Hermione, who had left Snape's office ten minutes before her Astronomy class ended, ran straight up to Professor Sinistra's class with a note from Snape explaining her absence from class.  When Hermione handed Sinistra the note she could not help but notice that her absence had somewhat disturbed the Professor quite a bit.   
  
"Miss Granger," she said after placing the note gently on her desk.  "I expect a lot from you.  It may seem unfair for me to say so, but you are at the top of the class and I expect you to remain there.  If Professor Snape has important matters to discuss with you, do so, but within your own time, and please don't hesitate to inform him that your studies do come first. I will not allow you to run his errands while your textbooks await here unopened."  
  
Hermione did not know what to say.  She stood flabbergasted and ashamed before her Astronomy teacher.  She definitely did not expect to be lectured by her, especially after a note was handed in.  She always felt intimidated by Isabella, so this made it all the more difficult for her to swallow it all in.   
  
"I don't want to see this happening again, Miss Granger.  Is that understood?"  
  
Hermione nodded wide-eyed before leaving. 'What the hell was that all about?' she thought.  That was the cruelest thing her Professor has ever said to her.  Hermione could not help but think it was not because she had missed class earlier.  
  
  


Hermione went down to the Great Hall to meet up with Harry and Ron.  When Harry saw her he nearly jumped over the table to hug her down.  She noticed that Ron was not there yet.  "Where the hell have you been?  I thought something had happened to you."  Hermione smiled at the smiling Harry and was moved by her friend's heartfelt concern for her.   
  
"Oh, Harry, I'm fine.  I just had a bit of running around to do.  And I had to go up and explain to Sinistra why I missed class today."  
  
"So why did you?"  
  
"Oh, well I was… trying to explain to Professor McGonagall and Snape that I couldn't make it to this detention we had tonight because I had counseling with a few students scheduled from last week," she lied.  
  
"Yeah, I heard about the fight," he said anxiously.  "What happened and where the hell is Ron?"  
  
Hermione's face changed quickly when Harry said this.  "What do you mean?"  
  
"'Mione, I've been looking for him all day after I heard about the fight.  I can't find him anywhere and no one else has seen him."  
  
"Did you go up to the common room?" she asked before Harry nodded.  "Your dormitory?" she asked as he nodded again.  "The restrooms, the kitchen, McGonagall's office, the field, chess club, the tower, Hagrid's, staff room, Harry, did you check all those?" 

Harry stared at her disbelievingly, as he nodded each time.  She was about to say library, but then she already knew the answer to that.  
  
"We need to find him.  Something could've happened to him," she said worriedly.  Before Harry could agree, Ron had shown up suddenly.  He pulled out the chair between Parvati and Harry and sat down across from Hermione with an odd smile pasted across his face. 

Everyone remained silent as they waited for him to reveal where he had disappeared to, but Ron was just as quiet.    
  
Hermione looked strangely at him and wondered what the hell he was doing.  She realized that he was acting very peculiar.  "Ron?" she asked.   
  
The corner of Ron's lip rose slightly, increasing the peculiarity of his smile.  He stared at her with such disenchanted eyes.   

"Ron, I'm really worried about you.  Where have you been?  Harry's been looking all over for you."

"Harry?  What about you, 'Mione?  Were you looking for me?" he said unsteadily.

"Oh! Well, see, I just found out that you were missing," she said guiltily.  
  
"Well, I'm fine, Hermione," he said drunkenly.  "I got lost in one of those bloody rooms in the castle, where I met this one broad," he burped, "in there who wanted to talk to me."  

Hermione noticed he was trying hard not to drag the words that came out of his liquor-stunk lips.  "She said she wanted to see my wand collection," he half stammered and half laughed.  "Whatever the hell that meant," he said, his head lolling about his shoulders.  "I think someone forgot to tell her, we're only allowed to have one," he whispered seriously.   
  
Hermione got up instantly and collared Ron by the cloak.  "Get out!  Now!" she spat, pushed him back.  She stormed out of the Great Hall and waited outside impatiently for the straggling Ron to arrive, where she would kick his arse all the way back to the common room before a Professor found him and decided an even worse fate for him.   
  
When Ron finally arrived outside, he noticed that Hermione was not there.  She had already walked ahead towards the common room.  She expected him to follow after her.  And Ron, after a few trips and bumps (thank Godric no one had seen him) managed to arrive there safely, though he was held up outside when he could not quite figure out what the password was.  
  
It was _Looking Glass_.

"Liquor Glass," said Ron to the portrait as he reminisced of the previous hours.  

The fat lady shook her head.  She was beginning to get suspicious of the boy's peculiar behavior.   
  
"Is it Knicker Rash then?" he asked with a despicable grin.  

The fat lady shook her head again. 

"Oh, could you just let me in?" he pleaded.  "I mean, you know who I am.  It's me, Don."  

Ron found himself exchanging disappointing glances with the Fat Lady.  She found his behavior appalling unexpected and was intent on not letting him in unless he gave the proper pass word.

Ron realized this before he tried a different technique.  
  
"Did anyone ever tell you, Valentina, how good you look in that dress?" 

The fat lady arched her long brow dramatically at Ron for his obvious attempts to woo his way into the Common Room.  

  
"No, Mr. Weasley and my name is not Valentina."  
  
"Oh. Are you sure?"  
  
"The password, Mr. Weasley, or I will inform the Deputy Mistress of your intrusion.  
  
"Fine then," he snapped.  "Hooking Stash" he said with a fervent nod.  
  
"No, no, no, it's Cooking Glass or Looking Pass.  Looking Glass, no, Booking Mass, Looking Cooking…"  
  
The fat lady in the portrait looked disgustedly at him before letting him in.  She had caught the password amongst the others.   

"Tut, tut, tut," she said with a wave of her finger.  She faintly heard the Redhead mumbling before entering. 

"Tut this," he said with a quick flip of his finger. But when he stepped into the hole, he was knocked back out with a forceful punch from Hermione, who had heard his despicable attempts to get in.  
  
"Get in!" she said stepping over him and picking him up by the collar.  
  
Ron snapped out of his drunken state quickly.   
  
"Thought that would do the trick," she spat viciously.  "What the hell do you think your doing?  Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this," she said, slapping him across the head.  What the hell were you thinking, Ron?  We have detention in an hour and look at you?  LOOK AT YOU!" she scolded. 

He would not say anything and this pissed her off even more.  Hermione stared at the drunken teenager before her that she believed had changed so much since she first met him, and yet in his own way, has not changed at all.   
  
His hair, now an accented red, highlighted naturally from the sun and his russet freckles, mapped out across his sculptured face was an asset to his illustrious features.  Ron's lips, especially when he smiled, Hermione thought, were the most beautiful part of his face: A buxom pair of flesh filled skin and as rich as the hair on his head.  

Broad-shouldered and rugged, Ron had developed, within the past couple of years, into his sylphlike physique. He preferred to wear his slacks low just to tug below his hips.  Hermione remembered when she used to relish the image of him running around his yard without a shirt, revealing his sculptured abs and vaulted belly.  She thought he was one of the sexiest guys in school: athletic, popular, not a complete idiot (except in times like these), kind, hilarious, and singular at times, yet no one bothered to get his attention, for it was no secret where the Redhead's heart really lied: in the palms of a simple girl, who had given up on their relationship.  
  
Hermione felt sorry for Ron.  She could not help but feel that it was her fault this had all started.  She saw that her reprimand had truly gotten through to him.  She sat him down in an armchair and brushed the stray strands out of his eyes.  

Ron immediately closed his eyes at the instant touch of her fingers against his face.  His heart fluttered and hopeful memories of them together rushed back with a vengeance.  He wanted to stay in that moment forever, for he knew he could not withstand another moment without her.   
  
"Hermione," he whispered with his eyes gently shut.  He leaned is head back against the armchair and let her work her fingers across his face.

She felt her heart churn as she was reminded of her cruel intentions. She only wanted him to feel better, yet she knew she was only making things worse.  She realized exactly what it did to him; to touch him so fervently.  It gave him false hope, and brought back everything she had worked so hard to get rid of and forget.  But as much as she denied feeling anything for Ron other than companionship, she could not deny that she enjoyed what she was doing to him.  It made her feel just as good as it did him.  

She continued to trail her fingers along his face, dotting his freckles like she used to when he would lie on her lap. 

Ron opened his eyes slowly and looked longingly into hers.  With a silent plea for more touch, more skin, and for more of her, he ran his fingers along the side of her arm.  He wanted to taste the tips of the fingers running freely across his face, when it should be flanked between his lips.

  
He continued to trail his fingers across her shoulders and slipped one beneath the flap of her robes.   

Hermione felt it slip off her shoulders.  She battled within herself to stop him before he worked his own brand of magic on her.  His eyes never left hers, but she watched his sneaky little fingers work its way quickly yet subtly into her robes like they used to.  

He gently pulled her closer to him.  She smelled his scent of liquor mixed with his cologne and a hint of sweat.  

Ron pulled the rest of her cloak off and unbuttoned her blouse down to its last fasten before letting her cotton attire slip gracefully off her shoulders. 

She made the mistake of closing her eyes, and at that very moment, she indulged in the very sensuality of his touch.  

Memories of a certain night came back to her.  She felt long dexterous fingers exploring her body now.  They were long, thin, and lithe, and running without permission down her bare chest and between her breasts.  She moaned out loud and was surprised at the effect such little yet overpowering tools, such as these fingers could do to her.  

Her eyes shut and her moan more detailed, Hermione looked up and saw Snape.  
  


She gasped and pulled away from Ron immediately. She quickly buttoned her blouse up and pulled her robe back on. Ron looked disappointedly away without protest. She stood up and told him to go up and take a shower before detention, and walked out without looking back.   
  
She went down to see Snape.  
  
  


Hermione forced herself to a clear mind as she traversed the halls on her way down to Snape's dungeons.  Her cluttered mind rove wildly about, and as hard as she tried to remain calm, she failed miserably.  How could she be so stupid as to let that happen, she thought.  

Hermione knew that Snape would not be at his classroom when she arrived, but she decided she was going to wait there for him until dinner was over.  That would be in about a half an hour.  She figured that it would give her enough time to come up with an excuse for Snape as to why she missed dinner and went straight to his dungeons so early.  Hopefully she will have a few minutes alone with him before everyone else arrived for detention.  She did not know why she wanted to see him, let alone what she was going to say.  All she knew was that she needed to be around him for everything else to make sense.   
  
When Hermione arrived at the dungeons, her heart leapt when she saw the light on. She figured Snape had come back early after all and she was glad.  Hermione started to panic when she realized she did not know what she was going to say to him. 

Before long, Hermione decided that she would just walk in and say whatever came to mind.  She only hoped that she would not do what she usually did when in such situations: she would stare speechless.  

Hermione was surprised when she walked in to see a deviously grinning Malfoy, leaning against the dungeon walls.  He was waiting for her… all alone… in a Snape-less dungeon.  
  
Hermione stared apprehensively at Malfoy as she quickly pondered on his reasons for being down at Snape's dungeons all by himself.   

The look of apprehension on Hermione's face gave Malfoy the satisfaction of seeing her thrown off guard from her own game.  He knew that she was up to something.  He never doubted that she was constantly forming plans and plotting devious schemes against him and his father's work.  His arms folded across his chest, and his hair, unkempt as if he had been running his fingers through it, Malfoy stood up straight and motioned for Hermione to sit down. 

She remained standing beneath the doorframe as suspicion quickly and immediately formed in her head.  "I'm not even going to ask what the hell you're doing here so early," she drawled slightly before taking a seat in the front desk.  She tried her best to pretend that he was not there.  
  
"Well, for your information, Miss Granger, I actually came down here to apologize for my behavior earlier today.  It was my mistake and I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to frighten you," he said with a chagrined smile.    
  


Hermione quickly craned her neck round to get a look at Malfoy.  She was absolutely stunned at what had slipped out of his lips.  She had never heard him address her so formally and without the sardonic tone that usually went with it."

  
"You didn't frighten me, Malfoy, and let's drop the formalities," she snapped.  "It doesn't suit your phony smile."  
  
Draco grinned still and looked at her with an unusual expression plastered across his flaxen face.  He bit his lip and stared at Hermione, who was still avoiding any eye contact with him.  He cleared his throat, ran his fingers through his hair again, and continued.  "You know, I had really hoped the two of us could get along just a bit better, seeing as how we're on the same side now, Hermione. Can call I call you Hermione?"  
  
"No!" she spat. "And what side is that, DRACO?"  
  
"The Dark side, Granger.  You're working for the Dark Lord aren't you?"   
  
"Who the hell said that I was on his side. I'm only doing what Severus tells me to do, and unless you're sleeping with him too, we're not on the same side."  
  


"And he doesn't for you?" he whispered deviously.

"What?" 

"The professor.  Does he do it for you?  Is that what gets you off, Granger: bitter, old men who spends about a third of their lives skulking in the dungeons and prowling in the corridors for truants, and are about as good-looking as you are pretty?" he laughed.

"I suppose it's better than humping the bed at night, Malfoy."

Disgusted with the turn their conversation had taken, Hermione had choice but to go along with it.  She figured that Malfoy was testing her.  She could not allow herself to give in and show Draco that she was feigning all along.  She had to make him believe that she truly was different from the tame and submissive Hermione everyone perceived her as.

  
Draco licked his lips and looked at her with coveting eyes.  He walked up towards her without saying so much as a word or a warning.  He took her by the arm and lifted her up from the desk. 

They both remained silent, and Hermione wondered what the hell he was doing.  They stared at each other, and Draco, never being this close to her, the Muggle girl he's always despised and the girl he was forbidden to associate with, felt the pit of his stomach turning.  He was filled with such unusual sensation. He never realized how much he wanted her, how different she made him feel.  Unlike many of the other useless bints he has been with, he actually felt some competition with Hermione.  

  
Draco felt the need to bury his face in that thick mane of hers that he had always hated and made fun of.  He wanted to trail his tongue along the nape of her neck and down her back where he would personally undress her undergarments with his teeth.   
  
Draco pulled Hermione towards him-- his grasp still tight around her arm.  He curled the other around her waist and pulled her closer to him. 

Draco took the liberty of brushing himself against Hermione like some desperate frotteur. 

Hermione simply stared at him, though she was cursing out loud in her head and screaming: 'What the fuck are you doing?'   She forced herself to endure the revolting display before her.  She told herself repeatedly that it was a test, just a test, and if she were to pull back, he would know that her situation with Snape was a lie. 

Draco licked his lips again and in a flash, flung her robes off.  With a tight grip behind her bottom, he lifted her up and placed her on the desk behind them.  He parted her thighs whilst he thrust his knees between her legs.   
  
He stared longingly at her as he coveted to rip the clothes off her and to spread her out across Snape's desk for him to come and find them banging each other's brains out. 

Hermione, in the meantime, never broke their eye contact.  She made sure that he saw the unperturbed and unaffected look in her eyes while he fiddled with her buttons and ripped them off one by one.  He turned around and walked over to Snape's desk to grab a pair of scissors before he walked back to her.  He slipped it around the front of her bra and snipped it open.   
  
"I always wanted to do that," he whispered softly in her ear.  He ran his hand along her sides and then beneath her blouse.  "What's the matter, Granger, am I frightening you?" he whispered. Hermione stared with masked animosity, wishing to God, any God that someone would strike the fucker down and rid her of her humiliation. 

  
"What's to be frightened of?" she merely replied.  "You're about as intimidating now as when you were a ferret."

"Ouch!  A bit ruthless are we?  But then I suppose after one gets nailed by the most intimidating of men-- nothing really gets you down."  Draco gripped Hermione by the back of her head as he whispered into her ear.  "Don't let your sudden conversion from prodigy to a teacher's whore get away with you.  Fucking the Potions Master doesn't make you any more superior than when you were a Muggle."

"I am a Muggle, you psycho asshole."

"And you remember that," Draco spat harshly.  "Stop waltzing around the fucking school like it's your own personal playground.  Having brains, Granger doesn't change the fact that you're still a Mudblood and always will be." 

"If this is your idea of turning me on, get off, because you're wasting my time and valuable energy that could be put to more use with someone else."   
  
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, please do," interrupted a familiar guttural tone that unsettled the both of them.  Hermione and Draco simultaneously turned towards the slightly opened dungeon doors, they failed to ward, and stared at the figure lingering between the gaps.  
  
Snape had been watching them the entire time.

__________________________


End file.
